Evicted
by GarrettDuke01
Summary: When the Dukes are five minutes late paying their mortgage, J.D. Hogg is quick to take the farm and to turn it into a boarding house. But when things turn on Hogg, who will be willing to save Hogg from trouble? Some OOC. Rated T for safety
1. Chapter 1

_**Disclaimer: **I don't own The Dukes of Hazzard or any of the characters in the Dukes, I just enjoy the show and enjoy writing about them!_

_**Author's Note:** I have wrote several Dukes stories on other sites, but this is my first Duke story on . On other sites I am known as my two created Duke characters that is not in this story...Garrett and Kristy Duke. As I said, I enjoy the Dukes and enjoy writing them. This story and the idea behind it all comes from my stubborn muse that led me to this story yesterday when I was attempting to write my other Duke story for my series. So I am still in the dark as to where this story may be going at the moment...for now I will follow my muse to see where it leads me. Hope you all will enjoy the story and everything behind it. I would love for your feedback or if you have any helpful advice that may help me better the story or my writing. _

_**There may be some OOC in the story with some of the characters, but I will try to stay in character as much as possible! **_

_**Thank-you to all that may take the time to read my story!**_

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_**EVICTED **_

_**CHAPTER ONE**_

It was a dark and dreary winter day when the Duke elderly patriarch took a last look at the empty kitchen before stepping out onto the old porch. Despite the deep sadness that tears deeply within him, a small smile crosses his withered face as his thoughts slowly flash back to the many memories he had built upon this porch. Memories of rocking the kids on warm summer nights, playing matchbox cars with the boys on it, or sitting up on the porch swing as he wait for one of the kids to return home from one of their dates. Now as he steps off the thin and well worn steps down onto the dusty dirt drive way, he is forced to leave the house he had been raised on, the house he had raised his nephews and niece at, and to walk away with only memories. Over and over again he had told the boys and Daisy that it was only a house, only a farm, that there is much more to life than a louse building built with wood or the land and animals; it could be worse. Though now as he steps to his dirty truck, he is stuck asking and wondering what all he was talking about when he had attempted to comfort them. Truth is, the farm means the world to him. It was always family and the farm that meant the most to him and now he is left with only his family and memories.

Taking a deep breath, Jesse slowly turns around to eye the old farm house, taking it in for another long moment as his thoughts grudgingly fall upon the reason of their departure. Boss Hogg. The man that Jesse Duke had grown up with, was friends with for a long while before things happened that made Boss and Jesse not just no longer friends, but enemies. For years Boss has tried every trick he could imagine to get his hands upon the boys' famous race car or the farm; now he has succeeded upon getting the farm. Anger swells rapidly within Jesse as his thoughts flash back to yesterday of when they had walked into Hogg's office five minutes late in order to pay the mortgage. Hogg's dark eyes gleamed in excitement as he ripped Jesse's payment in half, declaring late is late, and that the farm now belonged to him. Forget the fact that it was Hogg's own construction truck that had plowed The General off the road in order to make them late, they were late and the farm technically was owed to Hogg.

"Damn it," Jesse cusses as he turns his attention to his truck bed that is full of the last goods that had been left behind from Cooter's truck. Sighing heavily, he throws open the passenger door of his truck just as Rosco's patrol car sharply turns into the driveway to force Jesse's attention towards the town's sheriff.

"Jesse!" Sheriff Coltrane grunts as he steps out of his patrol car a minute after pulling it into park. He falls silent a moment as he walks up to the elderly Duke before making a play to look down at his silver watch before pointing at the face of the clock to look up at Jesse. "My clock here says it is twelve oh five in the afternoon. Boss Hogg has ordered you off his property by noon today." He shakes his head in shame. "Which means you are five minutes late…again. You make it a policy to be five minutes late to everything?"

"What are you getting at Rosco?!" Jesse snaps impatiently despite knowing full well what the local sheriff is going to with his statement.

"What I'm getting at, Jesse, is that you are now standing on Boss Hogg's land and I've got orders to arrest any trespassers I find on this here land. Meaning you or anyone else in your annoying family," Rosco harshly states, raising his index finger into Jesse's face while stepping closer to Jesse who refuses to back away. "lucky for you, Jesse, I don't feel like arresting you today. So I am willing to give you another chance at your freedom, so if I were you, I'd get in that truck of yours and back out of here and not come back. I'm real sorry about your loss, Jesse, but the rules are the rules."

Jesse eyes the sheriff skeptically for a long moment, waiting for the other shoe to fall, knowing that the sheriff is Hogg's loyal side kick. "I guess I should tell you thank-you, Sheriff," Jesse nods at Rosco before he climbs into the cab of his truck, "I'll be getting going."

"I'd appreciate that, Jesse," the sheriff gives Jesse a sad look before Jesse looks away to take a last look at the old farm house before backing out of the driveway and back onto the dirt road. The same drive he's made day in and day out for years, though this time, deep down, he knows he won't be going back.

"Lost Sheep calling Shepherd," Daisy's familiar voice comes through the CB to break the thick silence that built within the cab, "Shepherd."

"This is Shepherd," Jesse sighs heavily after picking up the mike, "I just left the old farm."

He hears her let out a loud sigh over the CB. "OK," she finally states after going silent a moment to enforce Jesse to grow worried over how his kids will take this move, "Well, we're at our new house," she goes silent, talking about the old farm house that they were able to rent from Mr. Calbrawn last night, "the boys and Cooter are unloading the trucks and moving our things into the house. I just thought I'd give a call out to see if you were alright."

"Thanks Daisy," Jesse slowly responds as he feels the tears begin to swell in his eyes, "I'm fine. I'm on my way."

Silence quickly resumes within the cab as the CB goes quiet to leave Jesse back with his thoughts, thoughts of the old farm to thoughts of the new house they had toured last night. The house they have rented is of reasonable size with the same amount of bedrooms and bathrooms the old farm house has and it holds the same purpose. A place to live in, a place to sleep in, a place to be a family at. Yet it isn't the same nor will it ever be the same to any of the Dukes. It may just be a farm as Jesse tried to comfort the boys, Daisy, and himself, but the farm was a big part of them that has just been taken away.

* * * *

Bo sighs heavily as he slowly sets down the heavy box of belongings that belong to him and Luke upon the old ratty bed that is shoved forcefully against the wooden wall, the ratty bed that conveniently came with the old farm house. A deep sadness continues to rip violently within him as he silently looks around the small room that they all picked out to be Luke's and his room to share. A deep sadness at the thought of leaving the only house he has ever lived in, sadness at the thought of living somewhere else due to Hogg's greedy ways, and a deep sadness at the thought that the old ratty bed that had been left behind will now be dedicated to him. While Daisy, Luke, and Jesse's old beds were transported from the farm, they all had opted to leave Bo's queen sized bed behind since there was already a bed at their 'new' house. His bed was chosen to be left behind since it was bigger and heavier than Luke's single sized bed, leaving him a different bed to sleep in as well.

Struggling with the anger and sadness that sinks heavily within him, Bo slowly moves to the back window to stare out at the thick woods that surrounds the back of the old house while an empty pasture lies right of the house and a large field lies on the left. _'At least the pasture and field are Mr. Calbrawn's land to work and worry about.'_ The thought repeatedly crosses the youngest Duke's mind as he forces himself to think of the positive aspects of the move and only come across the fact that Jesse won't have to worry about taking care of all the land and property they had on the farm. "Damn it!" he cusses heavily as he pulls himself away from the window to walk out into the crowded living room; crowded with boxes and furniture that they have moved in from the trucks that the hauled all their stuff over in. "Where's Jesse?" Bo worries out loud despite not seeing anyone around.

"He's on his way, sugar," Daisy says as she stands up to be seen in the kitchen, worry is spread thickly across her face despite the small smile that she forces on her pretty face. "I just talked to him on the CB."

Bo half nods as he looks around the room, feeling lost amongst all the boxes and things that surround him. "Things won't get packed on their own," Luke gruffly states as he walks through the open door with another box load of things, "you need to pick them up and move them yourself."

Bo rolls his eyes at his older cousin. "Real cute, Lukas. Thanks for the reminder," he finally states as he walks past Luke, forcefully bumping into his shoulder on his way out to Cooter's truck where Cooter is stacking the boxes left over onto the sidewalk.

"Hey buddy roe," Cooter forces a smile at his friend who is obviously upset over the move, "cheer up. As Jesse said, it's just a house. Plus, knowing y'all, we'll find a way to get the farm back. We just need to get our heads together and think of a way."

"How Cooter? We were late," Bo asks sarcastically as he glances over Cooter's shoulder to watch Jesse's truck come into view, "I highly doubt Hogg is going to change his mind and give it back to us."

Cooter shrugs his grease stained shoulders at him as Jesse pulls in behind them to come to a halt a couple of feet from Bo. "You never know…especially with how Luke thinks. He'll think of a way," Cooter quickly states before Jesse climbs out of the truck. Turning his attention to Jesse, Cooter states, "If there is anything I can do for you Jesse, just -"

"You're doing enough," Jesse quickly states at the family friend before he eyes Bo who quickly looks away to send more sadness and grief within Jesse to see how upset Bo looks over the move. "We better get these all in the house before it begins to rain as the weather man is predicting."

"Yes sir," Bo slowly nods as he picks up a large rectangle box of Daisy's belongs to stiffly being to walk towards the house with it.

"Well, this is it," Jesse forcefully states as he follows Cooter and Bo in with the last heavy box, "home sweet home."

"Oh Jesse," Daisy states as she walks over to hug tightly onto him and Jesse returns the hug.

"It'll be OK, Dais. Just wait and see," Jesse forces a smile at her.

* * * *

Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane took a long and heavy deep breath as he silently watched the elderly Duke's dirty white truck slowly disappearing around the small curve in the road several feet away. Normally, Rosco would be ecstatic at the sight of the Dukes being evicted from their inherited Duke farm in one of Hogg's schemes, normally he would have arrested Jesse with glee as he had been ordered to do if any of them were still on the farm after noon. Jesse was standing there, on Hogg's new land, five minutes late, which would have given Rosco plenty of reasons to arrest Jesse on trespassing as Hogg had ordered Rosco to do. Though to Rosco this day, this time, this scheme of Hogg's, seems anything but normal and deep down within Rosco grows a deep sense to rebel against Hogg. Against what he is attempting to do. Everything within the aging sheriff screams back at him, that it is all wrong. Everything. Not that he ever been the one to excel in doing everything right or worrying whether things are right or wrong in the past. In fact, his whole life he had spent working hard for the acceptance of one person or another, whether that meant doing something that is right or if it was something that he knew was wrong; he'd do it for acceptance. And more so than most, working with Hogg, that meant doing things on the dishonest and wrong side in order to gain Hogg more money, more land, more fame; and in order for Rosco to receive acceptance from his fat little white buddy.

But now on this cold, windy, winter day, something within the aging sheriff that it all has to change whether Hogg likes it or not. Years ago he had applied and became an officer of the law to stand up and protect the innocent people of Hazzard and he worked hard to provide honest law work for the people of his town. He was well liked and honest. That was how he got elected sheriff. Though after several more years as Hazzard's sheriff and serving the people of his town, his pension was taken and his pay was decreased despite his hard work. That had left a stale taste in his mouth and anger boiling deep within him and before he knew it Hogg had taken advantage of him, of when he was the most vulnerable. He went from the honest patrol officer everyone trusted to being dirty and dishonest, following the fat commissioner around in order to seek his acceptance and support. He got it alright, but it came with ripping off the honest people of his beloved town and going along with Hogg's plan to give himself more money and power and only giving a slim percentage of all ill-earned money to Rosco. And for the longest time, it seemed right and fair to Rosco to go along with Hogg and cheat the people of Hazzard of their hard earned money; after all, it was them that had taken his pension away.

"It all has got to change," he hears himself say to no one around as he eyes the empty Duke land that lies in front of him as his mind revisits yesterday of the entire family rushing in with their envelope only for Hogg to rip it in half. Of the anger that had crossed all their faces and the threatening steps the youngest blond haired Duke took before his calmer and cooler older cousin grabbed his arm to stop him from going any farther. Of the intense sadness that locked in, in the elderly Duke's crystal blue eye who had solemnly shook his head, wise enough to know that Hogg had finally got them. Got them good, too. Which, in Rosco's mind, made it worse. In the past, Hogg had gotten his hands upon the farm or their race car illegally, but they always had room to fight him on, to earn their stuff back with full payment from Hogg. But now? Now all they have is their story that they were ran off by Hogg's construction truck, that no one else was able to see or witness. Convenient for Hogg.

"We done it Rosco! It's finally ours!" Hogg's boisterous voice penetrates the silence and Rosco jumps in surprise, lost too deeply in his thoughts that he didn't even hear Hogg's Cadillac pull up behind his patrol car. Rosco turns around as Hogg's driver silently opens the door for him and Hogg quickly and giddily walks over to where Rosco stands. "What's your deal?" he asks Rosco as Rosco eyes him silently and then the old farm house. He shakes it off as he lights an unlit cigar and places a thick hand upon Rosco's tens shoulder. "Never mind that. We just past Jesse," he pauses to look at his pocket watch, "and it is twelve twenty. Which puts him here past twelve. So why isn't he in the back of your patrol car, Rosco?"

Rosco shakes his head at Boss as he pulls his eyes away from the familiar house that is generally alive and colorful and is now quiet and dark. Taking Hogg in, he silently begins to wonder how he could be so cold as to feel that way about the man who had once been his best friend. "I think he's been through enough, Boss, as it is," Rosco coldly states, "You took his land and farm away from him, ain't that enough for you?"

Jefferson Davis "Boss" Hogg grunts in surprise at Rosco's statement and begins to wonder what has gotten into his sheriff that is generally quick to please him. Now Rosco seems tight and upset about having to enforce the law as if he had allowed the elderly Duke to go away in rebellion against him. "What is your problem, Rosco? If you have a problem with how I run my town, then maybe you should take some time off and I'll find myself another sheriff who is capable to do their job properly!" he spits out at him finally, deciding he is not worthy of time spent worrying over. "I don't know why you all of a sudden have a change of heart and feel like pitying the Dukes, but they lost their farm fair and square! We had an agreement on their mortgage and it is stated plain and clear what would happen if they are a _second_ late on their payment. Well they were over a second late, they were five minutes late! That makes all their land and property now mine! You know that as well as I!"

"You just don't get it, do you Hogg?" Rosco stares at Boss for a moment before taking a step closer to the abandoned house to receive a blank look from Hogg, "They didn't just show up late to pay their payment…they didn't oversleep, they didn't leave their farm late. They were five minutes late because you had Rundi plow into them with that there truck of his! You have this here land because you had them run off the road!" Rosco snaps back at Hogg, no longer patient with him, "So no, they didn't lose their farm fair and square! You cheated it out from them!"

Boss stutters a moment, shocked that Rosco has enough nerve to talk back to him like that. Finally he says, "You've never had a problem in the past nor did you have a problem when I told you of my plans! What changed now?"

Rosco shakes his head at Hogg for a moment. "I don't know, Boss. I don't. All I know is that I am tired of cheating people out of their hard earned money, their land. It's not right," he finally states, awaiting to receive Hogg's angry wrath.

"Not right?" Hogg questions, "Well you better decide on what you want with your life, Rosco. Because if you are not with me, you are against me. If you're against me you can give me your gun and badge right now and I'll find another sheriff that my money _will_ buy! Which is it?!"

Rosco eyes the abandoned house and then the small fat commissioner who eyes him with fire of anger spitting towards him in his dark brown eyes. Finally he lets out a deep breath he had been holding and says, "I'm not against you, Boss. You know me better than that."

"I thought I did, but now you stand there questioning my ways," Hogg hisses back at him, "if you're not against me on this or anything with me, then -"

"I'm with you," Rosco slowly states with dread filling heavily within him. Dread knowing that if he were to go against Hogg, he'd be without a job. And the job, whether he does it right or not, is his only reason of getting up in the morning. Without the badge and the gun, life to Rosco would be dull and empty, and hardly worth living. "I'm with you Boss."

"Good," Hogg quickly states as he walks past Rosco to throw his cigar in the mud for his driver to step out. Turning back to Rosco he asks, "then why did you arrest Jesse Duke for being on my land? You had orders, Rosco?"

Rosco shrugs. "As I said," he finally states, tensing up in preparation for Hogg's angry response, "I feel like Jesse and all the Dukes are taking enough from you with you taking the farm. They don't anything else to make it worse, like arresting Jesse."

Hogg looks hardly at Rosco as he takes a deep breath in order to control his rising anger before he turns his back to Rosco to walk up the thin wooden steps and onto the porch. "You were always dullest tool in the shed, Rosco. You just proved just how dull you are!" he finally snaps as he walks to the front door before turning to face Rosco, "You comin'?"

Rosco nods before walking up the steps to follow Hogg into the farm's kitchen that now lies empty of any dish, table, or chair and sadness swells within Rosco. Sadness to see the farm so empty and void of any life now that Hogg has taken it from the Dukes, to see Hogg's plans slowly playing out. Normally Rosco would feel the same giddy and excited feeling that wraps around Hogg now that he has gotten what he wanted. But instead he feels sadness and dread at the reality of the situation and guilt that he has played a big part of taking the farm away from the Dukes. "It's empty," he hears himself say to break the silence within the house as Hogg moves away from him to walk into the living room and Rosco slowly follows him to find it just as empty as the kitchen. "Now what?"

"My niece and her husband will be here later this evening," Hogg states as his frown quickly disappears into an excited smile, "when they get here, they will begin cleaning this place up and getting it ready for the change. When that is done, they will move in the furniture and food, and then put the sign up and we will begin advertising."

Rosco nods. "What if no one wants to rent or if no one comes?" he finally asks as he begins to walk down a hallway to find himself in the boys' old room to find they had left an old bed behind. "Well they left a bed behind."

"Great," Hogg laughs over his shoulder, "and as for your question…they'll come. If not, who cares? We'll turn the farm into something else. But for now it is will be a boarding house. Plus who couldn't resist me niece's cooking and her husband's handy work around the farm? They'll have horseback rides they can go on or do whatever else they can do on the farm. But we already went over this…remember?"

"I remember," the sheriff nods as he moves past Hogg, his thoughts fall the Dukes and onto Hogg's well rehearsed plans that they have went over several times in the past week. "I was just trying to remind myself of why I am doing it for. Thanks for the reminder."

Silence falls between them again as Rosco walks out of the hallway and back into the living room as he is left feeling torn between his old self of yearning to gain acceptance of Hogg by doing what Hogg wants and the troubling feeling that things need to change. That _he needs to change. But how?_


	2. Chapter 2

**_DISCLAIMER:_**_ The characters and everything do NOT belong to me but belongs to WB and the creaters of the Dukes of Hazzard. I get no profit from writing DOH fan-fic, rather I write for the fun of it._

**_AUTHOR'S NOTE:_**_ I am sorry that this story hasn't been updated in so long. Got busy with a few other stories and this one kinda got pushed to the back burner until someone mentioned it to me and it got me thinking about it again. I will try to do better. Thank-you for your patience for all that was waiting for this long awaited chapter and for taking the time to read it. Hope you enjoy...please review and let me know what you think of it. Thank-you again!_

CHAPTER TWO

The old alarm's loud piercing sound startles Luke awake and he groggily hit's the black box until silence shoves the loud noise away while Luke lies upon his old bed awaiting for the vivid nightmares to slowly fade away into reality. Nightmares of war, of seeing his friends killed right in front of him, nightmares that seems to plague every other night or so of sleep; nightmares he has learned to ignore. He allows a long moment for his thoughts to falter away from the vivid and too familiar scenes while his eyes struggle to adjust to the pure darkness that lies heavily in the room. For a moment, thick confusion rushes through him as he listens to his cousin's heavy breathing, the differences of the room coming to a surprise to him before reality finally sinks in. Reality that they lost their farm to Hogg due to being five minutes late paying their mortgage and despite the construction truck that had ran them off the road, Hogg has finally found a way to win over their farm. Leaving the Dukes with little to no room to fight with him on.

"Damn it," Luke whispers under his breath as he sits up to look over his cousin's sleeping still body that lies on the bed across the small room; still asleep despite the loud alarm that rang out a couple of minutes ago. Luke shakes his head in disbelief at his cousin being able to oversleep the alarm, wondering silently how he'd ever make it if he were to live on his own and without anyone to wake him up physically or without anyone to cook his meals for him. A small smile crosses his face at the thought as he eyes the digital clock and for a long moment begins to wonder why he had set the alarm so early; especially when they no longer had the normal chores that came with the farm.

"A plan," he reminds himself as he stiffly stands up to blindly make his way to the door. Despite losing the farm to Hogg with little area to fight him with to get it back, Luke stubbornly refuses to let go of hope of ever getting it back. If he wants to get the family farm back, it would be up to him to come up with a plan to get it back and he always done his best thinking alone and when it was quiet. Reaching the closed door, he slowly turns around as Bo yelps out in his sleep before going back to his loud snoring and a deep sadness crosses him. Sadness at the thought of losing the farm for himself, but more so for the rest of his family members. Jesse Duke has spent his entire fifty-eight years upon the farm, from growing up to inheriting the farm, and raising him and his cousins. Both Daisy and Bo has spent their entire lives at the farm as well. After his nine year stint with the Marines, Luke knew how it was to live away from the farm to gain at least some experience and strength from it. Watching his cousin sleep, he silently wonders if Bo will ever warm up to the idea of living at a different house or if he'd continue to take it as hard as he had taken it the past couple of days.

Taking another deep breath, Luke opens the door to slowly step out into the living room to notice that the kitchen light is on several feet away. Closing the door and beginning to walk to the kitchen he silently begins to bet who else may be up, Jesse or Daisy. "Jesse," Luke states walking into the kitchen to find Jesse sitting at the table, "you're up early."

"As are you," he states looking up and chills spread across Luke's numb body to see the wetness in their wise uncle's eyes. "I tossed and turned all night last night and I couldn't stand to stay in bed another minute. A different house, a different room," the elder Duke pauses to shrug before he lowers his head, almost ashamed to say what is on his mind, "I just keep on thinking about the other day. I don't want to blame Bo for this," he goes silent once again as he runs a hand through his beard while fighting back his emotions, "but if Bo had been paying more attention to the road and sped up when we told him to that damn truck wouldn't have ran us off the road as he had!"

Luke eyes his uncle with surprise to hear him accuse his youngest cousin for their situation and for a moment he struggles with what to say in response. Jesse wasn't all wrong in thinking that way and the truth is, Luke found himself thinking the same thing over and over again. Not only had he thought it, he even accused Bo to his face while they had been packing up their room, told him it was his sloppy driving that got them evicted. Bo had immediately lost his temper and it had started a fight between them until Cooter came and separated them by ordering Luke to help Daisy pack her room up.

Deep down, Luke also understands that it is much easier to blame someone else for something than to find fault in yourself or to admit openly of your faults. The two boys got into their car after helping Jesse and Daisy within the backseat, fighting and arguing over who was going to drive in the upcoming race that held a large sum of cash for the winner. It had started over breakfast all fun in games until Luke had reminded him of the race Bo had lost two months ago. Everyone knew Rosco had the driver run Bo off the road which was the only reason why Bo lost the race, but Luke had confidently declared Bo had lost the race due to his lack in talent of driving. That if Jesse was going to get the money in order to fix the roof of the barn in the spring, that it better be him who drives The General in the race, the better driver of the two. He had been picking on Bo, Bo knew it too, but took it too personal and had gotten upset and their fight escalated from there.

Truth is, if he hadn't gotten Bo upset and hadn't carried the argument into the car and had allowed the fight to drop as he normally would have, Bo wouldn't have been as sidetracked as he had been ; Bo would have seen the truck and would have stopped before the truck got to them. Instead he wasn't paying attention to the adjoining road the truck had been speeding on and when he saw it at the last second, they got sideswiped and Bo lost control of the car to land in the ditch. Rick Rundi had climbed out of the truck apologetic and demanded to take fault in it and after a few moments of looking over The General, agreed to take the Dukes into town to see Hogg.

"Look Jesse," Luke finally states as he pulls a chair out to sit down across the table from Jesse, "it wasn't all of Bo's fault. If I hadn't started that stupid argument and didn't take it as far as I had, he wouldn't have been upset and he would have seen Rundi there. Or if Rundi wasn't speeding and actually stopped at the stop sign," Luke shrugs as he silently takes his uncle in for a silent moment, "he wouldn't have hit us either. As hard as it is to accept, it was just an accident."

"Yeah I know. It's everyone's and no one's fault," Jesse finally states, "not that it matters. What matters is that it happened and now we're here. Bad thing is," he pauses for a short moment looking around their new kitchen, "that unless there is something we are missing, we lost the farm on our own accord and not to Hogg's schemes. Not that he complained about it and he was more than happy to follow the consequences to our tardiness, but it doesn't look like he had his greedy hand in any of this. Meaning no way of getting the farm back."

Luke shrugs silently, at a loss of what to say that may help his uncle feel better. Finally says, "Don't give up, Jesse. Plus," he pauses to give his uncle a sarcastic smile, "wasn't it you that told us yesterday morning that it was only a farm? Only a house? That we could start a new life here with new memories…that there is more things to life than the farm?"

Jesse offers his older nephew a patient smile. "That was I, all right," he finally states, "trying to comfort y'all as well as myself. Hope it helped y'all better than it had me."

Luke gives his uncle a small smile before he looks around the small kitchen, his thoughts comparing it to the kitchen at the farm, comparing the two houses. It was definitely not their farm, but it was a house with a roof for them to sleep under, something they weren't sure they'd be able to find under such tight circumstances, yet with help from friends they found the house to rent. And a landlord that was willing to lease his beloved farm to them knowing in advance that they were tight on money. "Know it's hard to accept, but you were right. It was only a farm, only a house. We have a lot of memories growing up there, living there, but memories don't live in a house. They live in here," Luke points to his head, "we just need to move forward. We are just lucky to find a house to rent under our circumstances."

Jesse nods. "Yeah I know. You're right," Jesse nods as he looks up from his aged hands that lie upon the table they had unpacked and placed in the kitchen yesterday to look at Luke. Questions slowly begin to surge within him as he finds Luke looking across the table at nothing with a far away look in his bright blue eyes. "I know that look of your's. What ya thinking about?"

Luke shakes his head momentarily as he redirects his attention at his uncle. "As of now, not much of anything," he pauses dramatically as he swallows down the rough emotions that continues to rip inside of him. Emotions of deep sadness at the loss of the farm, anger towards Hogg for his greedy ways, yet also anger towards himself for pushing Bo too far to help fuel his guilt. Taking a deep breath, he finally continues, "I think me and Bo will take a trip out by our old farm. See what Hogg has planned for the old place."

Jesse shakes his head. "Sounds like a good way to get you two into trouble," Jesse gives Luke a stern look, "the farm is no longer ours, Luke, it's his to do whatever he has in mind for it. You two going out there will only provoke them into arresting you and honestly, I don't have the money to bail both or any of you outta jail."

"Don't worry, we're just going to drive by it. No harm in that," Luke forces a confident smile at his uncle to hide his small white lie as he continues to think out the plan that is forming in his mind.

_Upon hearing the door slam shut behind him and feeling his heart come to a heavy stop within him, Bo dreadfully turns around to face the ugly wooden door as his kin's faces vividly comes to mind. Of the hatred and anger that had been deeply implanted in their eyes towards him. Anger and hatred at him for messing up once again and this time, costing them all the farm. Luke's angry words yell back at him as he had only moments ago yelled at him at how worthless he was or Jesse's out blank accusation that it was he that lost them their farm. Bo sighs heavily as guilt rushes through him in full knowledge of the truth, that they are right, it was him that lost the farm to Hogg. If he had been paying attention to the road, he would have saw the truck coming. Instead he was too concerned of what Luke had just said to pay attention to the road until it was too late. And now they've lost the farm and Jesse, Daisy, and Luke had just kicked him out of the house they had moved into yesterday; making it loud and clear to him that he is not wanted there any more._

_Perhaps Luke is right. That everything would have been better if Jesse hadn't taken him in when his parents had abandoned him on Jesse's front porch, that Luke wouldn't have gotten in all the trouble he has thus far in life only to be the one to find the way out. If Jesse had turned his back on him when he was a baby they'd still have the farm, Jesse would still be able to run shine since it was him that was dumb enough to get caught, and Luke wouldn't have spent his time growing up having to look out for him all the time. He could have actually lived a life instead of being a full time babysitter that he still seems to be despite the fact that Bo is clearly an adult now; at least age wise._

_Taking a deep breath once more he finally admits to himself, Luke is right. Without him there at the farm, things would have been different and for the better. For them anyways. Now that he has been thrown out, they'll be able to move forward with a better life. A better life without him and without the farm he managed to lose for everyone._

_After a long moment, he forces himself to grasp onto the facts that has just been dished to him, that he has outworn his welcome in their presence, and slowly turns around to walk down the two stairs and onto the muddy drive way. Leaving him facing The General. Luke made it clear that it was his car and if Bo were to take it, he'd press charges; after all it was the lack of Bo's driving ability that made them to be late on their payment. He just couldn't see trusting The General to the one that ran him off the road. Yet half the car belonged to him and Bo finds himself clenching onto the keys in his pocket with thoughts of rebellion ripping within him. How dare they talk to him that way! He didn't mean to get driven off the road and he didn't like this any more than they did!_

_Yet they were right and he was wrong. Again._

_Looking longly at the car he co-owns with Luke, he slowly walks past and out to the road where he takes another long look at the house they are now renting to enforce his raw emotions to quickly accelerates within him. "Good-bye," he hears himself say in almost a whisper, saying the good-bye he had been too hurt and angry to say when they had shown him the door, the good-bye they refused to give him. A long moment passes before he turns away and as he takes a step down the dirt road a loud beeping sound pierces through the eerie silence and fear abruptly captivates Bo. Breathing heavily he finds himself looking around in attempt to find whatever is beeping yet only to come up empty. Everything looks as it ad a moment ago. A short moment elapses before the beeping slowly fades away and Bo heavily closes his eyes before reopening hem to glance at the house once more to make sure it looks fine. Seeing it the same, he slowly begins his dreadful journey down the dirt road. _

Bo gasps as he is abruptly thrown awake to be surrounded by thick heavy darkness that surrounds their new room and for a moment fear grabs a tight hold of him as confusion settles in. As his eyes slowly adjusts to the darkness, he silently watches as Luke slowly and silently climbs out of bed and as Bo slowly glances at the alarm clock his nightmare abruptly reappears within him. The beeping that had so suddenly startled him in the dream had been the alarm clock ringing besides his head. Images from the dream vividly replay in his minds as the harsh words that had been said to him echo loudly to send questions racing within him. Watching Luke silently open the door to walk out of the room before closing it behind him to reengage the darkness in the room, he wonders if what they had said and felt about him in the dream were true. Deep down he knows they would never say or feel that way about him, but yet he can't help but feel their anger and resentment towards him. After all, it was him who had lost the farm. How could they not be upset or blame him? Bo sure couldn't.

"Damn it," Bo hears himself mutter aloud as he shoves himself up in bed as his guilt violently eats away within him. Staring through the thick darkness that continues to linger over the small room, Bo is abruptly hit with a startling thought that sends a shiver of fear tickling down his spine. _'It was him who got them into this mess, that lost their farm that has been in the Duke name for five generations, it should be up to him to get them out of this mess.' _Dread, fear, and questions ripple vividly through him as the thought rotates within him, over and over again to build a strong conviction within him that he has to do something to get the farm back. But what? Luke was the one who always came up with the brilliant ideas that had gotten them out of the trouble he got them into. Not him.

Sighing heavily, Bo slowly and stiffly climbs out of bed to make it over to where he had thrown his clothes at last night to begin to change into them while his mind wanders aimlessly as to what he should do. He strongly wishes he could go back to bed and await for someone to yell at him to awaken in order to help put things away as they talked about doing, but he knows he has to go out and do something to get the farm back. If not for him, then for his family. And in order to prove himself, he has to do it by himself.

Hearing voices in the living room, he stares at the closed door, awaiting for Luke to walk in before the voice fades away and Bo lets out the breath he had been holding before he moves to the window. Taking a last look in the dark room, Bo shoves open the window to send a chilly wind into the room to send worry rapidly washing over him that he may be heard. "Let's do it," he whispers to himself, attempting to encourage him onward before he slowly climbs through the window and out into the chilly early morning before closing the window behind him.

Intense fear and confusion steadily hits Bo as he turns around to eye the dark and unfamiliar surroundings as he hears a small animal scampering around nearby. Dark shadows loom everywhere and for a long moment Bo begins to wonder if he should turn back around and return to the old farm house only for his guilt to shove him forward. Swallowing hardly, he steps farther away from the wooden wall of the old farm house and he steals another look back at the house to make sure no one was watching him. Seeing the windows dark and with no movement, Bo nods at himself before he quickly walks a few feet forward to step into the thick woods that surrounds the farm house. Feeling hidden and protected from his family and helpless and vulnerable to the wild that may be lurking within the woods, Bo inhales deeply and forces himself to continue walking in between the bare trees and shrubbery.

Chills rapidly cross his tense body as the wind blows steadily fast and Bo comes to a halt momentarily as a few drops of icy cold sprinkles land upon his head. "Great," he mumbles sarcastically under his breath before he continues to walk in the woods. Staring through the thick darkness that surrounds him, his fear grows rapidly within him at the thought of what he has done to his family and what he is doing now. He has lived in Hazzard all of his life and yet as he walks in the woods behind the house, the fear of getting lost in the woods escalates the fear that was already entrapped within him. Bo quickly tries to shake the fear away as he tries to assure himself that it would start getting light soon.

Fighting with his raw emotions that violently claws within him, Bo begins to kick an pinecone as Bo continues to find his way through the thick woods while the rain slowly picks up. "Damn," he states only to hear himself talk, to break the silence that follows him. After a long few minutes of walking aimlessly through the unfamiliar woods, Bo comes to a halt as the startling question powerfully hits him. What is he going to do to get the farm back? How could he get the farm back? Bo had given the farm to Hogg by allowing that truck to run into him as he had and there was no chance that Hogg would just give it back to them no matter how nice they asked or how sad of a story they could give him. Hogg won the farm fairly this time. So what could he do to get it back? "Nothing," he hears himself say only to create a sense of hopelessness and a sense of inadequately within him. "Then what?" he asks aloud as he forces himself to continue walking and he is quick to get the obvious answer; go to the old farm and see for himself what Hogg has planned for their old farm.

Taking a drink of coffee, Luke watches his uncle for a long moment, thinking of what all they had said momentarily before they had both fallen into silence. Minutes of silence that Luke had spent thinking and planning what Bo and him could do today once they got to the farm in order to find something to help them get their farm back. Only to come to the conclusion that they had to go to the farm and see what was going on before he could even begin thinking of a plan. If they didn't see anything wrong or find anything against Hogg, they'd just be wasting their time. "It always takes Bo a while to wake up and get dressed and ready for the day. I think I'm going to go wake him up so that we can head out to the farm once it gets light out," Luke interrupts the silence and Jesse looks up at him and nods before his eyes fall back upon the scarred kitchen table. Luke sighs heavily as he puts his ceramic coffee cup down and slowly walks out of the kitchen to almost walk right into Daisy. "Morning Daisy. How you sleep?"

Daisy eyes him hardly momentarily before looking away. "What sleep?" Daisy lets out a breath before looking up sympathetically at her older cousin, "I'm sorry Luke. It was just different sleeping in a different room, different house. My mind just wouldn't shut off once I laid down." She hugs him. "How was your night?" she shakes her head. "Well at least I had my own bed to sleep on. I kept thinking of Bo who was given that old ratty bed. While we all at least had the comfort of our old bed, he didn't even get that."

Luke nods at her rambling. "I slept, but was disturbed with war nightmares," he answers awkwardly, "don't know about Bo. He was asleep when I woke up and left the room."

She nods as she eyes Jesse through the open doorway. "Well maybe I'll see if we have the makings for a good breakfast. Perhaps that'll help lighten things up a bit," she forces a smile up at Luke before she slips by and over to Jesse where she gives him a tight hug.

Luke watches her for a moment before he hesitantly turns around to walk back through the crowded living room, making his way through the maze of furniture and boxes to the closed room that he shares with Bo. "Hey Bo," Luke states loudly as he opens the door and slowly steps in and for a moment is frustrated when he gets nothing in reply. Breathing in deeply in order to control his emotions, he leans over to turn on the lights that quickly chases the thick darkness away into light. "Bo!" Luke hears himself yell aloud in shock and fear as he sees Bo's unmade bed empty. Luke is quick to notice that Bo's clothes from yesterday to be gone and off the floor where Bo had tiredly thrown them last night when they had changed. Luke's thoughts race rapidly within him of where Bo may have been only for him to recall his harsh words towards him, of his accusations he had strongly given Bo. Of the emotional pain that was apparent in Bo's eyes when he had said them, almost looking as if Luke had physically hit him. Swallowing hardly, Luke turns on the light of the living room and makes his way to the bathroom and a large hollow feeling erupts within him to find it empty.

"Luke," Jesse states calmly as Luke walks back to the living room, Jesse now standing alert and worried in the kitchen doorway, obviously had heard Luke yell out Bo's name in surprise and now picking up on Luke's panic. "what's wrong?"

"Bo," Luke states coming to a halt a couple of feet away from Jesse as Daisy joins Jesse in the door way, "is gone."

"Gone?" Jesse asks numbly, staring at his oldest nephew as if he doesn't understand what he is saying, "What you mean, gone? Where is he?"

"I - I don't know," Luke hears himself stutter, "he's not in the bed room and he's not in the bathroom. My guess -" Luke begins to state his thoughts aloud before thinking better of it, "never mind. I'm going to walk around the house and see if I can see anything. Footprints or anything. Damn, I need a flashlight." Luke quickly walks over to the boxes to frantically look around before he sees the flashlight that Cooter had thrown onto the couch yesterday after it had fallen out of a box. "Here's one."

"I'm coming with you," Daisy quickly states, joining Luke at the door.

"Me too. Where would he have gone to? Why?" Jesse snaps off questions as they walk out of the house and Luke turns the flash light on towards the ground.

Luke shakes his head. "My guess is he feels responsible for everything and maybe feels like he has to do something about it. I don't know. All I know, is, is that I said some pretty harsh words to him yesterday," Luke leads them around the corner, "my guess is, is if he did go out on his own, he had to have snuck out through the window after I left the room. Which means he can't be too far."

"Maybe not, Luke," Daisy states as they make their way to the back of the house and the thick woods comes into view, "but if he went in there, we would never find him. He could be a few inches away and in the dark and all, we'd never see him!"

"Daisy's right," Jesse agrees as they reach the boys' bedroom window and Luke comes to a halt and they are quick to stop as well.

"Yep. Look at here," Luke slowly states as he shines the light on thick heavy footprints in the mud that start at their window and go into the woods. "Damn," Luke cusses and shakes his head as the wind and rain slowly picks up to send chills up and down his tense body. After a moment he shines the light into the woods and says, "If we had more flashlights, we could split up."

"It's useless," Jesse grunts as he looks into the woods, "we'd be lucky if we did find him with all them trees and bushes and with - " Jesse goes quiet in fear with thought, "Damn why he be so stupid for? He don't' know them woods, especially in the dark like this!"

"What you thinking, Jesse?" Luke questions, picking up on Jesse's sudden change.

"Them woods has a big hill several feet away. If I remember right from my shine days, there's o warning about it even in the day light. It's just a big drop off," Jesse mutters as he steps closer to the woods, "he definitely won't see it in the dark and I highly doubt he knows about it off hand like this." He goes silent as he eyes Luke and Daisy with bewilderment in his eyes. "Last thing we all need is him going and getting himself hurt or worse with whatever he has in mind."

Luke eyes Jesse wildly as he digests all that Jesse had said only to send his thought back to yesterday and all that he had said to Bo while they were packing, of his strong accusations. "Damn it," he cusses as he eyes the woods, trying to think of Bo within the unfamiliar woods in the dark and the drizzling rain. "Bo! If you here me Bo, turn back and come home! Bo!" Luke starts to yell.

Jesse nods in agreement before he begins yelling, "Bo Duke. You better get your rear in gear and get it home! Bo!" They go silent in desperate hope of hearing Bo's footsteps making their way back home only to be greeted in silence in return.


	3. Chapter 3

**DISCLAIMER: **_I don't own the Dukes or the characters on the Dukes. Nor do I make any profit. I write for fun._

**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** _Thanks again for all those who are taking the time to read my story and for the reviews. Please review and let me know what you think! :)_

**CHAPTER THREE**

As the icy cold rain picks up to continually beat upon Bo and run down his neck, Bo comes to a halt to slowly glance around the dark woods before looking up at the sky to find it slowly lighting up. Lighting up enough for Bo to see the true reason why it is still so dark out, dark gray storm clouds cover most of the sky to threaten the storm that the weathermen have been predicting. "Great," Bo states sarcastically before beginning to walk in the direction he had been going earlier only to reinforce the question to ring loudly within him. Where was he going? To the old farm, for sure, but how was he sure he was going the right direction in the woods he was only familiar with in the day light? Only to remind him of that steep drop off hill that these woods lead to in one direction or another, but which way?

"Bo!" Luke's voice echoes off of the bare trees to make Bo halt suddenly in surprise. He knew sooner or later they'd realize he was gone and perhaps try to go after him, but didn't expect it to be this soon. If he had known Luke would realize he was gone this soon, he'd have taken The General and not have worried over the engine alerting everyone of his departure. "If you hear me Bo, turn back and come home! Bo!"

Bo sighs heavily as he glances back before he slowly continues to walk forward. All they would do is attempt to persuade him not to go out on his own and maybe even claim it wasn't all of his fault. But he couldn't fight or ignore his guilt that yells differently within him, yelling that it was his own stupid fault that lost the farm. Only to assure him, that he has to do something to help get their family farm back. Even if he didn't know what as of yet.

"Bo Duke." Jesse's voice slowly follows Luke's and for a moment Bo looks back, knowing better than to disobey his uncle. "You better get your rear in gear and get it home! Bo!"

Inhaling deeply, Bo forces himself to do the one thing his mind and heart tell him to do, he goes forward knowing the consequences would follow if Jesse knew he heard him and disobeyed him. "Keep going. You failed them enough, already," Bo states aloud in attempt to calm his fears only to be startled by a swooshing sound a second later. Looking up, he finds a big black bird flying away from a tall branch and Bo shakes his head at himself and being scared of a bird. As he walks farther and farther into the woods, the more distant his family's echoes get before they come to a halt to make Bo wonder if they had given up on him returning or if he had just walked out of hearing distance of them.

Minutes slowly pass by as Bo forces himself to walk in between the trees and the shrubbery while the sky slowly lightens above him yet the woods remain dark with the shadows that are cast upon the ground. Bo's boots sink heavily down into the wet mud that covers the earth's floor from all the rain Hazzard has gotten the past few days and he has to forcefully pull his feet up to walk at times. Glancing ahead, he nervously looks out for the drop off into that steep hill that he knows lies around the woods somewhere as he had come upon it years ago when Brody and him had went for a walk in the woods when they had skipped school. They had found it the hard way when Brody fell behind Bo only to alert Bo with a scream of pain and fear, when Bo looked behind him, Brody was gone. Luckily, Brody had only slipped a couple of feet before getting stopped by a thick tree trunk and was able to walk away with only a few bumps and bruises from it. But now with the thick wet mud and the darkness surrounding Bo, Bo doubts he could be that lucky if he were to stumble upon the hill on accident.

Taking another step, Bo is greeted with a low throaty growl and Bo comes to a halt in fear before he forces himself to slowly turn around before seeing a pair of gold eyes shining at him several feet away from him and several feet from the ground. "No, no," Bo hears himself say in fear as he takes a step backward only for the big animal to take a couple of steps closer to him. Bo takes another step backward only to run into a thick tree and the animal takes several quick steps towards him, growling angrily at him. The animal takes another threatening step closer to Bo and Bo flattens himself against the tree as he takes in the large dog that is massively covered in dark black hair except the chest that has a streak of white as well as around the large paws. The dogs sharp white fangs are visible as the dog continues to growl at Bo while Bo identifies the intense look to kill trapped in the wild dog's sharp eyes. Eyeing the dog, Bo is hit with indecisiveness of what to do. He knows better than to run from a dog. To run would only encourage the dog to run after him, but to stand here looking at it would only show the dog that he is weak and vulnerable.

"Go away, dog," Bo hears himself say at the dog who only intensifies his growling, the thick black hair standing angrily up before the dog lowers itself to the ground to make Bo's mind up of what to do, run. Just as Bo quickly moves to the side of the tree where he had been standing, the dog lunges upward and toward where Bo had been only to hit it's thick head against the tree. Inhaling deeply, Bo begins to run zigzagged through the trees with the dog growling, barking, and running after him. Bo feels his heart race rapidly within him as he feels and hears the dog growing closer to him with each step he makes before Bo can feel the dog's nose touch the back of his leg. Bo attempts to pick up speed as he continues his run, the thick mud slowing him down, while his thoughts remain stuck on vivid images of the dog attacking him, of the dog's large teeth ripping into his skin.

Feeling himself gain ground away from the huge beast, Bo slowly glances over his shoulder to find the dog several feet back from him, running wildly towards him with teeth bearing and a look of hatred in the bright eyes of the dog. "Damn," Bo states feeling hopeless in his attempt to get away from the big dog who seems to be made of pure muscle and hatred. Turning back around, Bo abruptly sees the abrupt drop off through the darkness a moment before his foot lands on the dirt and he hears himself cuss aloud as his body is violently thrown down upon the wet muddy ground and he feels himself grasp at the ground desperately as he is sucked downhill. Pain explodes within Bo as he slides down the steep hill as he is thrown into trees and shrubbery and onto rocks repeatedly. The couple of minutes that it takes Bo to slide down the hill before his torn and broken body lands flatly against a large thick tree truck seems to last an eternity to Bo. Bo lets out a loud sharp cry of intense pain as he lands against the solid tree truck that stops his fall even though to Bo it feels as if he is continuing to slide down the hill.

Feeling the tree beneath him he forces his eyes open and the woods seems to spin rapidly around him in a thick haze while a thick and heavy darkness threatens to swallow him whole. Fighting off the darkness, he forces himself to look up the hill he had just slid down to look to him to be miles before his eyes adjust well enough to see the big dog staring over the edge of the hill, eyeing him with bright gold eyes. After a long moment of staring down at Bo, the dog lets out a loud bark and then a growl before it slowly backs away and out of sight from Bo. "Damn," Bo begins to say before he is cut off with harsh and heavy coughing as breathing becomes painful and hard. For a long moment he rests against the tree, too afraid to move as to force himself to start falling once more and his thoughts slowly fall away from his slide and the dog to what Jesse and Luke will have to say when they see him. Of their anger and disappointment at him for running off as he had, for being dumb enough to attempt to walk through the dark unfamiliar woods by himself.

As Bo slowly attempts to pull himself up, pain harshly explodes within his throbbing body and he is quickly thrown back down upon the ground in his pain and weakness. The icy rain picks up only to feel like sharp fangs piercing into his broken body repeatedly and Bo feels his eyes slowly shut before he surrenders to the blackness of unconsciousness.

**_THE NEW DUKE FARM_**

Luke reluctantly turns away from the thick wooded area as dread fills him with thoughts of Bo being alone in the unfamiliar woods, now knowing of the drop off that Jesse had just talked about. If only he hadn't lost his temper at Bo yesterday while moving and hadn't blamed him for losing the farm, Bo wouldn't have taken it upon himself to try to save the farm himself. Or wouldn't be out in the woods this early by himself. "Damn," he cusses as he runs his hands through his thick hair and turns away from the woods and towards the house to begin walking around the corner and he hears Jesse and Daisy close behind him. Putting his hands into his pockets, he silently makes his way around the house and up the old front porch and back into the kitchen with Jesse and Daisy following him in. Without a word, Luke quickly walks over to the key ring plaque that hangs on the wall to pick up his key ring that consists of the new key to the house and a key to The General.

"What we going to do now?" Daisy breaks the silence between the three of them, tears in her eyes, "I mean we can just leave him out there by himself, can we? Will he come back? Why he leave?" She goes silent, embarrassed by her outburst of questions. "Sorry. I'm just worried. First the farm and now Bo."

"Shhh it'll be OK. Everything will be OK," Jesse pats her on the shoulder, trying to reassure her despite his own fears and he finds himself eyeing Luke as well with Daisy.

Luke shrugs their attention away as he makes his way to the door. "The way I see it, Bo has either left to run away to spite me or he left because he feels responsible for losing the farm and feels like he has to do something to get it back. I'm willing to bet on the latter," he pauses nervously, each hateful word he spoken to Bo echoes in his mind, "Look, I lost my temper with him yesterday while packing. I confronted him about now doing his share of the work, which later turned into me blaming him for losing the farm. I said a few harsh words to him for what he did. At the time, I meant every word." He goes silent for another long moment, feeling closed in and Closter phobic in the kitchen, "but they were far from the truth."

Jesse and Daisy look questionably at each other, knowing just how strong of a bond the boys had with each other and just how much Bo looks up to Luke. "Look y'all were all mad and upset over losing the farm. Bo's old enough by now to know things like that are said out of anger," Jesse slowly states in his vague attempt to help his oldest deal with his guilt as he silently recalls his own words of accusations he had spoken towards Bo earlier to Luke. "What you thinking Luke?" Jesse finally speaks up to break his silence.

"I'm of thought to go out looking for him," he pauses for a long moment as he opens the screen door, "the only place I can think of him going is back to the farm in order to see if he can find anything out. Just as I had suggested we did earlier," he nods at Jesse, "so I thought I would start there. Problem is, is with him on foot, it would take him a lot longer than if I drove the car, so maybe I'll drive around the woods as much as I can to see if I can somehow see him in there."

"I'm going with you," Jesse grabs his red hunting hat off of the counter and quickly joins Luke at the door, "that way you can drive and I can look. I will be able to see more than you would driving since you'd also have to concentrate on the road. Daisy," he turns to his niece who he knows will insist on going to, "I need you to stay here in case he comes back for some reason or another."

"But Jesse, I -" Daisy begins to argue as Jesse had predicted she would.

"I know, you want to come too. But we need someone to stay here in case he returns. If he does fall down that hill and by chance makes it back up it and back home, he'll need some help. Though, he alls down that hill with all them trees, rocks, and shrubbery, I doubt he'll be making it home on his own any time soon," he sighs heavily, "all the same, I need you here for him. We'll give you a call if we find something or anything. OK?"

Fighting back the tears, Daisy reluctantly nods. "OK. If that's what you need me to do."

"That's what we all need you to do. As I said, we'll give you a call once we find anything," Jesse approaches Luke, "let's get going, Luke. I don't like this one bit."

_**THE OLD DUKE FARM**_

Lighting a fresh cigar, Boss glances up at the gray sky that remains clouded over with thick gray storm clouds as the rain slowly tampers back down to a drizzle. Despite the dismal weather that had began the day, Hogg was in great spirit and for the first time in a long time he full of excitement, almost making him giddy. The day he had been dreaming about for so long has now became a reality. Not only has he legally got the Duke farm in his name, but he has the perfect idea of what to do with it that will help bring him more money. A boarding house. The only bad part about it is that the idea had came from his niece and her husband who now have forced their way into his schemes and into the Duke farm by being the cook and the repairmen. Meaning less paycheck to him. Shaking his head at himself he silently yells at him again, that it didn't matter if he had to share the money with them, he finally got the Duke land, and that was what really mattered. He was already they richest man in that part of the state, had his other 'businesses' going that would bring him the money. This was only a bonus.

Looking up from his cigar, chills of excitement cross his round body to look up at the proud Duke farm that is now his farm standing a few feet away from him and he impatiently stands in his car as his driver makes his slow way around the car to open the door for him. Stepping out of the car, his brown eyes fall upon the expensive black Lexus that is parked to the far right side of the drive and questions wash over him. Inhaling on his cigar, he takes his gold pocket watch out of his inner pocket to look at it to find it to only be six thirty in the morning. Why would they be here this early? He questions himself as he slowly walks up the steps of the porch before shoving the question away.

"Uncle J.D.!" he hears from behind him and he comes to a halt on the second step to slowly turn around to find Rory standing near her expensive car with her auburn thick hair pulled up in a tight pony tail while she wears a thick denim coat, tight dark jeans, and expensive brown leather boots. She smiles broadly at him and her green eyes seem to sparkle as she takes a step closer and the driver door slowly opens in front of her. Boss remains silent as he watches Rory's tall and lengthy husband, Craig Hestler, steps out of the car with dark sunglasses covering half of his face before he takes them off to toss them onto the leather seats of his car. Craig offers Hogg a large smile of his own while his strong hand runs through his sandy blond hair that remains cut in a crew cut even after several years out of the Army. His hand falls down from hair to fall deeply into the pockets of his black leather coat and he begins to kick a large rock with the toe of his boot. "Uncle J.D.!" Rory yells again as she makes her way past Craig and to Hogg who now steps off of the porch step.

"Well hi there Rory," he endures a hug before he steps away from her and offers his hand to Craig and quickly withdraws it after Craig lets go. Looking at Rory, he says, "before we start, let's get this straight. We are going to be business partners. I will be addressed by Boss or JD. Not Uncle J.D. How old are you now?"

She rolls her pretty eyes at him as she takes a step back from him, dropping her fake enthusiasm she had just shown him a moment ago. "Twenty-four," she slowly states as she eyes Craig for a moment and then back at Boss, "and since we are setting things straight here, let me state that I don't want your stupid sheriff anywhere near our business. He has a tendency to," she feigns a thoughtful pose, "how do I say this nicely? Mess everything up. Craig and I have put a lot of thought and will be putting a lot of effort in making our business work and I don't want him messing it all up as he has for you in the past. Heck, I don't know why you even put up with him as you do," she shakes her head before she points at Craig, "I have an idea. Why don't you do yourself and this town a favor and get rid of him? You could hire Craig here to be your sheriff. He'd do a whole lot better of a job than what's his face does and he wouldn't be messing up all your plans and ideas as Rosco does."

Hogg eyes her hardly before eyeing Craig and chills rush down his spine at the thought of hiring him as his sheriff and having to work with him on a daily basis. Hogg never liked Craig from day one, never trusted him, and could never understand what Rory saw in him or why she married him. He was even reluctant to follow up on this idea of their's due to the thought of Craig living in Hazzard, the same town as Hogg himself, and having to do business with him. The thought of hiring Craig as his sheriff repulses him and Hogg finds himself biting his tongue in order not to say something aloud about it to Rory. Instead he says, "Whether you like Rosco or not, he's my sheriff and he is going to stay that way. Who are you to come walking in here and telling me how to do my job and who I should hire and who I should fire?" He shoots an angry look at her as he tosses the butt of his cigar on the ground and steps it out, "This is my town and if I want Rosco as my sheriff, he'll be my sheriff. Also, this here is my business, don't you forget it. You want to disallow Rosco on my land and in my business you can leave town the way you entered it. Rosco and I can find ourselves a couple of locals to do your job and they won't be complaining about my sheriff or how I do my job. Understand?"

Rory eyes him with fire in her eyes before she shoots a look at Craig who only shrugs. Looking back at Boss, she nods and says, "Yes sir. Just thought I'd be of some help and give you a suggestion. No need to get all upset about it. If you want Rosco in on our business, then he's in. Just make sure he don't mess it up."

"I'll worry about my sheriff. You worry about you and Craig there," Hogg shoots back at her, questioning whether it was all that great of an idea to be trusting Rory like he had a couple of days ago when they put the idea into motion. He sighs heavily. It was too late to be questioning that now. "Anyway, we should be worrying over all that needs to be done in order to get everything ready for business and not about Rosco. Glad to see you here early. The sooner we get started, the better."

Rory nods. "I agree," she states taking Craig's hand, "but I think before Craig and I get started with the house, I think we will go for a little walk and have a look at the property. Perhaps, we can come up with more ideas for the farm as a whole."

Hogg eyes her skeptically. "Fine. Do what you want in order to get it ready. That is your job. I just stopped by to have a look at it and see if you showed up yet. I have to get back to town to do some business," he pauses as he looks up at the farm house. He had planned on walking in and walking around it some more, but his distrust for Craig and his rising anger towards Rory on how she was treating and talking to him, is quick to persuade him into leaving earlier than he had thought he would. "I'll stop by later on this morning or this afternoon sometime to check up on things. Give me a call if you need anything and I'll see what I can do."

Rory looks up at Craig and over at Jefferson Davis Hogg and nods. "Sure thing, J.D. Have a good day at work and we'll have this place cleaned up and ready in no time at all. Wait and see," she smiles at Hogg as he walks past her and Craig to his white Cadillac Convertible.

Climbing into the backseat that his driver opened for him, Hogg quickly sits down and fastens up before lighting another cigar. "Step on it," he barks at the driver, "take me back to my office in town." He rests back against the white car seat as he attempts to shove away thoughts of his encounter with his niece and the worries and concerns her attitude with him has built within him. Never before had she treated him that coldly, but then again, the last time he saw her was at her wedding two years ago when he had first met Craig. Perhaps Craig is changing her from the fun loving and enthusiastic girl he once knew her to be to be more like him. Cold, uncaring, and untrustworthy. "Damn," he hisses as his thoughts slide from Rory and onto Rosco and all she had said. Only to have him thinking of how Rosco has been acting ever since he got his hands on the Duke farm. Not only has he been questioning his ways, but has also rebelled against him in letting the elder Duke go. Almost as if he's siding with the Duke in his way of feeling sorry for them. Perhaps Rory had a reason to worry about Rosco messing things up after all. . .

**_IN THE WOODS_**

Bo is abruptly thrown awake full of agonizing throbbing pain exploding throughout his body and for a moment, he is plagued deeply with confusion and questions. Through thickly blurred vision he takes in the mud, trees, and rocks surrounding him before he looks downward at the rest of the hill down and he attempts to sit up to slide slightly more with sharp pain cutting through his throbbing pain. Lying back down, he closes his eyes while feeling the world spin around him and he struggles to grasp what had happened that had gotten him lying against a thick tree on a steep hill plagued with intense pain. After a long moment of thought, his memory slowly comes back to him with thoughts of the big dog chasing him before he lost the ground under foot that had sent him rolling down hill.

"Damn," he hears himself wheeze aloud, pain flaring in his lungs with each breath he takes and he slowly grabs onto the tree and breathes in deeply as he slowly forces himself to sit up. Fear grows rapidly within him as he looks up the hill and he begins to question how he will be able to climb up the hill in order to get back home.

"Rory, what is your problem?" an aggravated male's voice pierces through the silent morning to abruptly grab Bo's attention. Bo hisses audibly as he slowly turns around to find what looks to be an attractive woman and a tall man standing at the end of the hill. "We all had this plan a month before you got into contact with that clown uncle of your's. You agreed that it was a great plan. You were all for it. And now that we are in this stupid hick town of Hazzard to fulfill that plan, you're having second thoughts?"

The woman shakes her auburn head at the tall man as she seems to wipe at her eyes as she hugs her arms tightly against herself. "It's not like that, Craig, and you know it! You lied to me. . .we had a deal. Me and you. Not Brian. And yet, Brian's set up shop in the Duke's barn." She says exasperated, "Whether you like him or not, J.D. is my uncle, and if we are going to rob him as we planned, we need to work together as a team!"

The tall man shakes his head at the lady, hands on his hips. "Brian is my brother. He came down only to make sure to take care of any more trouble that may come along. That's all. Nothing more, nothing less. C'mon Rory," he states softly as he runs his thick hand rubs over his head, "nothing has changed. All is as planned. We go back to the Duke farm…I mean our farm, and we build it up, restore it, and before long we'll have ourselves a boarding house. All the while Hogg will be trusting us and working with us while we will rob him blind."

"Yeah, and how are to do that, again?" she asks, her voice full of unbelief.

"We went over this, Rory, we follow our plan, nothing will go wrong and we'll be out of this hick town in no time. We'll be rich on your uncle's money while he'll be broke with his own boarding house." Bo silently watches, attempting to ignore his screaming pain, as the tall man she had called Craig steps forward to give her a hug only for her to push him away.

"If only it'd be that easy. Sounded that easy before I knew you lied to me. You know how I feel about Brian and you know how I feel when you lie to me like this!" she stares at him for a long moment before wiping at her eyes again and takes something out of her pocket and opens it to look into it, "We had a plan and you messed it up when you brought that dumb brother of your's along! Now if -" she goes silent as she turns around and Bo feels his heart come to a halt when she looks right at him. She turns around to face Craig, "We've got company, Craig." She points up the hill at Bo and the man looks up in the direction and Bo knows that he too has spotted him.

"No, no," Bo gasps as he fearfully watches as the man threatenly begins to walk up the hill and Bo turns back around and as he attempts to stand up, he is quickly thrown back onto the muddy ground to send even more pain through his body.

"OK hick, you've been made. Now get up!" the man sharply says and Bo glances back to find the man standing over him from behind with a gun to his head.

Struggling through his pain to breathe, he throws a weak and bruised hand up to his right eye in order to wipe something out of his eye, taking his hand away, he finds his hand thick of blood. As Bo remains silently sitting in the mud, the guy presses the gun tighter against the left side of Bo's head and Bo grabs onto the tree, trying to pull him up. Bo gasps as he begins to fall back down only for the guy to grab him tightly under his arm, yanking him downward toward where the lady stands, awaiting impatiently for them. "What do you want from me? I didn't do -" Bo begins to say before he is interrupted by harsh coughing to spit up slightly, "anything."

"You didn't have to do anything. You heard too much," the guy states while he roughly shoves Bo towards the woman only for Bo's legs to collapse under him and he falls upon the ground. "Get up you idiot!" he yells before he bends down to harshly yank him up again, this time grips grabs onto Bo's upper arm to hold him up.

"So smarty," the attractive woman spits out angrily, "what we do with him now?"

"This is where Brian comes in handy. We can tie him up in the loft, have Brian keep eye over him until we can figure out what else to do with him," the man says, his grip tightening on Bo's arm, "let's go."

Before Bo can say anything, the man puts a gun tightly to Bo's head and begins to shove him forward and the woman begins to follow behind them. "What if I don't wanna go?" Go gasps as he begins to drag his feet.

Tightening his grip more so on Bo's bruised arm and his gun tighter to his head, Craig hisses, "You don't have a choice in the matter. You're lucky I don't decide to put a bullet it that ugly head of your's now."

Bo nods slowly only to enforce the pain to grow in his head and the world spins quicker around him. "That's what I thought," Bo forces out as they walk out of the woods and onto the familiar back yard of the Duke farm to send harsh emotions to rush rapidly within his pain throbbing body.

_**I apologize for skipping arouond, I just found that my breaks I put in on my Word Processor in between characters were not showing here on for some odd reason. I hope this will work better and make more sense. Once more, please review and let my muse know how it's doing. ;) **_


	4. Chapter 4

_**DISCLAIMER:** Once more, I don't own the show or the characters. Nor do I gain any profit by writing DOH fanfic, do it for the fun of it._

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Thanks for the reviews...please keep them coming. My muse appreciates it greatly! Thanks!_

_**CHAPTER FOUR**_

Jesse Duke grips tightly onto the black leather steering wheel of the old Ford truck while Luke sits silently in the passenger seat, staring silently out through the open window at the woods that line the road. His thoughts are clouded with the little info he knows that had gotten them in the truck, going down the road, searching the woods for his cousin. Only for his thoughts to freeze upon Bo, his state of mind through everything, and what had led him to sneaking out through their window and into the woods. Only to come to the single explanation he had come up with earlier; Bo blames himself for losing the farm and had his mind set upon finding a way to make his wrong right. Only for the strong and accusatory words Luke had spoken to Bo yesterday during their move to strongly begin yelling within him. Deep down, Luke knows he wasn't the only one to blame for Bo running off as he did. Bo was already feeling responsible for what had happened, he didn't need Luke to tell him, and he would have ran off whether or not Luke had said what he did.

"See anything?" Jesse asks to break the silence that built within the cab of the truck.

"Yeah, a whole lotta trees, rocks, and mud. No Bo," Luke states sarcastically before he looks up at the gray sky that lingers above despite the rain coming to a halt an hour ago. "I'm having that bad feeling again," he slowly states, speaking of the feeling he always seems to get whenever Bo is in trouble or hurt, "he's in trouble or hurt. Maybe both."

Jesse sighs heavily before stealing a look at his oldest nephew, knowing better than to question his strong feelings and concerns he is having for Bo. The bond his boys has with each others seems to be strong enough that they often know when the other is in trouble of some sort or another even without being there to see it or know it. "It's that damn hill. I bet you a dozen to one he fell down it," Jesse hisses before he pulls his truck over to a flat area in the ditch and pulls the keys out of the ignition, "the hill or the drop off is right over there," he points into the woods, "let's take a hike and have our self a look to see if we can find anything."

Luke eyes him momentarily before throwing open the door to step out, his boot sinking into the mud. "It's a start," Luke answers as he joins Jesse at the entrance of the woods. They look at each other before they step into the shadowy woods and Luke allows Jesse to take lead, knowing he would know it a little better than himself to get there faster. After what seems to be several quiet minutes they reach the cut off that seems to be wide and deep. Luke steals himself a look down the steep hill and he finds himself holding his breath. "Well I don't see no one down there or anything," he pauses as he pauses as he looks up at Jesse who begins to walk along the hill line.

"It's too dark to see anything from up here. You go that way," Jesse points behind him and then points forward as he says, "I'll go this way."

Luke nods as he sends a hand through his hair and he turns away from Jesse to start walking the line of the hill, looking down at the mud at his feet and the tall trees that fall down the hill. "Bo!" he begins to yell, his feeling growing stronger within him. "Bo Duke! Yell if you hear me! Bo!" Hearing his yell come back at him, he slowly continues to walk ahead before he abruptly sees thick boot tracks in the mud that run to the cut off before stopping. Breathing in deeply, Luke glances down the hill to find a deep implant in the mud before slide marks go down hill. Looking up at Jesse that continues to walk the other direction, Luke thinks of yelling at him before thinking differently and glances back down at the dark hill. "C'mon Bo," he hisses as he slowly begins to slowly and cautiously finds rocks and trees to begin climbing down hill, noticing thick patches of blood on the way down only to send his heart to a dead halt of dread. After a long moment of following the tracks downhill, he finds it coming to an end right in the mud against a large thick tree trunk. "Bo," Luke states as he runs his hand across the deep implant in the dirt that is spotted heavily in blood, as well as upon the trunk of the tree. "Bo!" he says louder as he reaches over to pick up a large patch of jean fabric that is covered in blood and stuck upon the bark of the tree.

Looking up he sees Jesse's shadow, Luke yells, "Uncle Jesse!" he pauses as Jesse comes to a halt, "Over here!"

Jesse looks at Luke and nods, his heart stops in dread as he begins to make his way to where Luke seems to be kneeling down half way down the hill. He had been walking along, praying not to find his nephew down the hill, but now Luke seems to be telling him he found something. Jesse comes to a halt on the hill above where Luke is. "What is it? I don't see Bo," Jesse states.

Luke nods up at him before waving the bloody jean fabric up at him. "Bo's not here, but he was," Luke pauses before he looks down to see another pair of boot print a foot away joined with what looks to be Bo's foot prints. "Damn," he states shaking his head as he looks down the hill and through the opening of the trees, he sees the familiar Duke land, but no sight of Bo or anyone else.

"What is it, Luke?" Jesse questions above to grab Luke's attention.

"Wait a minute, I'll join you," Luke takes a last look to where it looks where Bo's fall had come to an end. Sighing heavily he begins his climb up hill. Once up on top of the hill where Jesse stands, he shows Jesse Bo's torn jeans and says, "Looks like he fell here," he points Bo's foot prints, "and landed against that tree there. Blood trails down the hill and on the tree there," he pauses for a long moment to look around their surroundings, "but it looks like someone else was with him. There was another pair of footprints down there and it looks like Bo went with whoever it was."

"You mean kidnapped?" Jesse asks, his heart once more coming to a halt in fear for his youngest.

"Looks like it," Luke goes silent as he looks around again, "the closest place here is our farm over there." He points over the drop off and into the woods. "I have a feelin' we should go have a look at the old farm. And not just for old time sake, either."

Jesse nods as he places a protective hand on Luke's shoulder for a moment. "Well then," he slowly states, "let's go have us a look."

Luke silently gets into the passenger seat while Jesse climbs behind the steering wheel before he turns the truck back and pulls it out onto the muddy dirt road.

"For once, Luke," Jesse states as he follows the road to the farm he had been raised on, the farm he yearns to move back into, "I wish your feelings would be wrong."

"Yeah, me too," Luke agrees, staring blankly out through his open window.

_**SHERIFF ROSCO COLTRANE**_

Sheriff Rosco Coltrane's patrol car squeals to a halt in front of the newly acquired Hogg farm and for a moment his attention falls upon Hogg's niece's car. "Rory," he hears himself state aloud, his thoughts fall upon the several times she had stopped by the sheriff's station while growing up and of the last time she had seen her at her wedding. Of her new husband that even he knew better than to trust. Only to make him wonder why Hogg has opted to trust them in a business proposition that they made with their supposed boarding house. "Oh well," he states knowing better than to question Boss. Throwing open his car door and stepping out, movement catches his attention and he looks over to find Craig walking out of the barn, rubbing his hands upon his pants Rosco watches him get closer, noticing the blood and mud that covers part of Craig's clothes. "Mornin' Craig," he nods at him as he steps forward to greet Craig, "what happened to you?"

Craig forces a smile at the sheriff and glances down at his outfit and fights to hid his own fear at being caught looking like this. "Eh me and Rory took a walk out in the woods and I slipped. I just haven't had the time to get changed yet."

Rosco eyes him unbelieving for a moment and then shrugs. "I see," he states before looking up at the farm house and once more is filled with guilt and dread at his part of taking the Dukes' home from them. "Boss sent me out here to see if you made any progress since he left and to see if you need anything."

Craig shakes his head at him. "He only left a couple of hours ago. What he think? We can make this into a boarding house in a couple of hours? Damn Rosco," he shakes his head, "I think he's lost it. That is if he had it to begin with."

"You hush! You don't come in here talking about him like that!" Rosco states, disgusted that they would talk about Boss like that. "You and Rory want something for breakfast? I can have Enos grab something in town to run to you in no time."

"We're fine, Rosco. We got breakfast covered," Craig states in annoyance, "now if you don't mind, Rosco, we're busy."

Rosco eyes him for a long moment, his hand resting upon the butt of his gun. "If you say so, Craig." He eyes the Duke farm house once more for a moment before his eyes fall upon the barn, his gut yelling at him that something was wrong. But what? Shaking his head, he throws open the driver's door once more and states, "I'll let Boss know."

"You do just that. We'll call if we need anything," Craig smiles and winks at Rosco and Rosco lets out a breath of exasperation, "bye Sheriff."

Rosco waves at Craig before turning the car on to slowly back out of the driveway , remembering old times of coming here to arrest the Duke boys, of giving them a hard time. The way it should be. Sighing heavily, he throws his patrol car into drive and drives past the familiar old Duke farm and pulls forward only to find Jesse's old dusty white truck coming at him. His heart aches at seeing the Dukes at their loss, their loss that he had helped Boss take from them.

Rosco yelps out in surprise as the old white truck quickly swerves and comes a halt in front of Rosco, cutting the road off in front of Rosco. "No, no, no," Rosco quickly steps onto the brakes to send the tires squeal to a halt, stopping a foot in front of Jesse's driver's door. "Git, git, git," he stutters as he throws open the door to quickly to get out of the car with questions rolling in his mind. Looking up, he finds both Luke and Jesse now standing out of the truck, looking at him with wide eyes full of fear and worry. "Well Jesse and Luke Duke," he hears himself say as he makes his way around his car, "if this is about your old farm, there is nothing that can be done about what is done. It now belongs to Hogg and his niece for their new boarding house." Anger is quick to hit Rosco for letting that slide, Hogg had made it clear not to say it to anyone. Their secret.

"Boarding house?" Luke questions, eyeing Jesse for a moment before turning back to Rosco, "Never mind, Rosco. That's not why we stopped you." He pauses to take in Rosco's surprised look. "Look Rosco, something's wrong with Bo. Bo ran off this morning. Long story short, we found his blood and this," he lifts up a blood covered patch of jeans, "on that hill in the woods.


	5. Chapter 5

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** Once more, I don't own the characters nor do I get paid for writing about them. I write for the fun of it. I apologize for the wait, I will try better with chapter six. It all depends on finding the time to write and my stubborn muse. Thank you for all that is reading my story and for the reviews! Please keep reviewing...it helps motivate my stubborn muse. Thank-you! :)_

_**CHAPTER FIVE**_

Bo hears himself let out a grunt of pain as the medium height muscular man kicks his legs as he steps over his outstretched legs and he is reminded just how painful breathing is. The man laughs as he slowly sits back down several feet away from him, near the loft's open door that overlooks the farm house. Bo forces himself to close his eyes in his vague attempt to ignore the screaming pain that pierces through his beaten body while his thoughts fall back upon what had gotten him here. He had left their new rented farm house in search of finding a way to get back their old farm that he had lost due to not seeing Rundi's large construction truck coming at them from an oncoming road. He wanted to go to their farm for an idea of where to start and not only is he at their old farm, he now knows that despite his lack of missing Rundi, that they were ran off the road in order to get the farm to Hogg. So Hogg could make himself a boarding house. But sitting tied up in the loft with Craig's trigger happy younger brother with his whole body throbbing in unimaginable amount of pain, there is little that he could do with all that he has found out. Worse yet, he had upset Jesse and Luke by running off as he had plus he had disobeyed their orders to return, leaving Bo to wonder if they are even bothering to look for him, to bring him back ho me. If they aren't looking for him, who knows how long they'll keep him alive or what will happen to him.

"Don't fall asleep on me now," the man snorts as he nudges Bo with the tip of his boot on Bo's leg to send another soft cry of pain from Bo and Bo slowly opens his eyes to eye the man with angry eyes before his attention falters past the gun man and upon the patrol car once again pulling into the drive way of their old farm. "What's he doing back here?" the gun man asks as he follow's Bo's attention to the driveway, his body visibly tensing up as the sheriff steps out of the car a second before an older man with a red hunting cap.

"_Uncle Jesse!"_ the words scream in excitement in Bo's throbbing head at seeing his beloved uncle below him only to send questions of what Jesse was doing at the farm with the sheriff. Ignoring the questions, he glances over at the gun man who continues to have his gun pointed at Bo, yet looking out the door at the two country men walking up the farm house's porch steps. Inhaling painfully, Bo bites onto his lower lip before he sends his right foot kicking as forcefully as his pain filled body will allow it. Pain accelerates within him at the motion and even more so as Bo's boot hits solidly upon the gunman's gun hand. Despite the pain and fear, a smile crosses Bo's bruised face as the gun flies out of the gun man's hand, who gasps in surprise, before clattering onto the wooden loft floor and scatters a foot across the floor before falling out of the loft's open door. The gun man yells out in anger as he jumps to his feet to glance down at his gun before turning back to Bo to send fear accelerating within Bo as he rushes towards him. Bo cries out in agony as the man backhands him across his bruised face. Abruptly, the gun man takes a step back, inhaling powerfully before Bo is quick to spit a thick spiteful of blood out on to his boot.

"You idiot!" the gun man yells as he yanks out another gun from under his coat and places it to Bo's head, "You didn't think I came up here with just one, did ya? I always carry two for insurance purposes. Guess it paid off, now didn't it?"

Bo swallows hardly as he looks up at him, feeling the ropes dig into his bruised skin before he glances over to watch Jesse and Rosco face the man they all had called Craig earlier. "Just let me go," Bo gasps looking back up at him, "I didn't do anything to you. To them. To anyone."

The gun man laughs sarcastically at Bo. "Good joke, plowboy. If I had my way, I'd waste you right here and now," he shakes his head at Bo, "don't know why Craig is insisting on keeping you alive. Though," he gives Bo a crooked smile, "he did promise me, that I'll have my chance to kill when the time is right. Damn, it's gonna be worth the wait."

Bo eyes him for a long moment as his words dreadfully sink in to send Bo's mind searching fearfully for an answer to a way out of here. "You won't get away with this," Bo hears himself say, the only thing he can think of to say or do at the moment. Full aware of how lame it had sounded.

**01010101 0101010101 0101010101 0101010101010**

Exhaustion ripples through Daisy's tense body as she stares over the rusted kitchen sink that over looks the drive way, eyeing the parked General and the open lane in hopes of finding her uncle's truck driving up in it. Hope of finding his dirty white truck packed full with three shadows in the cab of the truck, shadows belonging to Jesse, Luke, and Bo. Instead, the lane and the dirt road remain empty of the truck or any other vehicle to increase her worry that storms heavily within her as each passing minute that passes without any word or returning family member sends her vivid imagination growing in her mind. Her imagination vividly sending scenes of all that could be happening to Bo in the woods by himself, to Jesse and Luke. "Damn it," she cusses, feeling helpless and hopeless at being stuck home alone in an strange house and not knowing what was happening, makes everything worse. If only she knew what was going on with her family…if they were OK. . .

Daisy sighs as she moves away from the window to eye the several packed boxes and her mind washes the thoughts of her current situation away and back to yesterday of the boys' fights, of her own spoken and unspoken accusations towards Bo. Like Luke, she knew Bo had very little to do with them losing their farm. Even if Bo saw the truck coming, he could never have stopped in time, the truck was coming at them way too fast to get out of it's way. But she had been upset at what was going on, the fact that they lost the farm fairly to Hogg this time only put salt into the open wound, and she felt the need, the urge to blame s someone. Bo just happened to be the only person that had any control over what was happening and he seemed to be at the blunt end of it all with all of them. Daisy knew Bo already blamed himself for what had happened, but she couldn't help herself from voicing her opinion, her anger at her younger cousin. If only she had consoled him and had been there for him instead of giving him the cold shoulder and blaming him for everything, maybe he wouldn't have ran off to solve it on his own…

"Damn it. How can I be so selfishly stupid?" she cusses aloud in anger once more as she throws down a towel that had been folded in one of the open boxes and tears begin to roll off of her cheeks, she stairs through blurred vision down into the open box of bathroom supplies. Her thoughts continue to send guilt and fear ripping within her and she slowly stumbles backwards to sit down in an old cracked kitchen chair.

"Knock, knock," the familiar voice makes Daisy jump and look up to find Cooter Davenport opening the screen door to slowly walk into the crowded kitchen. His normal joyful look is quick to dissipate as his eyes take in her distressed state and he quickly makes his way to her to pull out a chair to face her evenly. "Now, now Daisy. It'll be OK. Y'all will get set up here and well," Cooter shrugs his shoulders and hisses heavily in his search of comforting words, "you'll see it ain't so bad. I mean, it's definitely not the old homestead, but it's not so bad either."

Daisy gives him a hard look for a moment, too caught up in her own emotions to see where their family friend is coming from before the reality of everything hits her. Cooter don't know about Bo or about Luke and Jesse out there looking for him. He's assuming she's still upset about the farm. Which she was, but in her mind, that is the least of her worries right now. She sighs heavily and nods while she wipes the tears from her eyes. "Look Cooter. I appreciate you trying to comfort me and all," she states before she looks around the small kitchen again before focusing upon Cooter again, "but the farm and all, is the least of my worries at the moment."

Cooter gives her a questioning look. "It ain't?" he questions as he readjusts his hat and he follows Daisy eyes around the room, "Well if you're not worrying about the farm, then what's got you so upset?"

Daisy eyes Cooter for a long moment as she feels herself begin to shake in her emotions of all that is going on. Sighing heavily she says, "Bo's missing," Daisy pauses as tears once more threaten to flood, "Luke went to go wake him up to find him gone. Apparently he snuck out the window after Luke left the room. We found tracks going from their window and into the woods behind the house. This was when it was still dark out and everything," she goes silent once more, her eyes go up to the door to take in the gray hazy daylight that now shines. Looking back at Cooter she states, "Luke and Jesse took the truck to search for him. I was ordered to stay here in case Bo would return."

Cooter is silent for a long moment as he takes in her story and his own emotions sink within him as he thinks of the irrational and quick tempered Bo out lost in the dark woods. "So, what's Luke thinking?" he finally asks.

"We're assuming Bo went out to find a way to get the farm back. Only logical explanation. Especially since we all pretty much accused him of losing it. Not that he needed us to accuse him, he was already feeling guilty about it," Daisy rambles on as her guilt builds within her, "Jesse was worried about the drop off in the woods. Bo not knowing the woods as much as he did around our house and in the dark, he may not see it. Even if he miraculously makes it pass that big hill, how the heck does he plan on getting the farm back?" she goes silent as she eyes Cooter with desperation for help, "I don't know, Cooter. I'm left here alone to wait on word or for someone to return and yet no one, but you. Not that I don't appreciate you coming over like this, but you still don't bring any answers as they would."

"I know," Cooter states in understanding, "what do you want me to do? Maybe if I walked through the woods now that it is light -"

"Bo would have too big of a head start," Daisy states, "Luke was going to drive around the woods and look into the woods before making it to the farm in hope of finding Bo. But if he fell -"

"He may have had a lead start, but if he fell down that hill, Luke and Jesse wouldn't see it from the damn truck," Cooter springs to his feet, "I'll follow Bo's tracks and see where they take me. If he did fall down that hill, I'll be able to see it better than Luke would."

Not able to sit any longer and wait, Daisy is quick to her feet. "I'm going with you," she boldly states and Cooter gives her a questioning look, she continues, "I know, they wanted me to be here in case Bo returns. Well, I can't sit and wait any longer without going crazy with all these thoughts that may have happened while everyone else is doing _something_. I'm either going with you or on my own. You chose."

"Well come on," Cooter states as he holds open the door for her.

**01010101010 1010101010101 010101**Harsh emotions tear within Jesse's numb body as the patrol car pulls into the familiar driveway that he had been kicked out of only yesterday. The drive way he had pulled up in and walked up in every day of his life. The drive way he had been kicked off of and told to never to return otherwise to be arrested for trespassing. Trespassing on what should be his own property, his farm, his driveway; yet due to Randy and that big truck running them off of the road, it no longer belonged to him nor any of his nephews or niece. Worse yet, they aren't returning to his old farm in search of getting it back as they were thinking of doing earlier before Luke found Bo gone. They were here in search of finding the missing Bo who had apparently fell down the steep hill Jesse had been worrying about, yet only leaving blood and torn fabric behind. Meaning Bo was gone, hurt and in trouble. Instead of worrying and searching for a way to get back the home he has lived in all of his life, they were worrying about and looking for Bo. If only he hadn't blamed Bo for losing the farm, perhaps they wouldn't be here looking for him. He never accused Bo aloud of being the one responsible for losing their farm, but he thought it, felt it, and maybe already feeling guilty about it, had picked up on how Jesse had felt. . .

Breathing in deeply, Jesse turns away from the old farm house and looks at the sheriff who seems to be frozen in his seat and staring up at the house in dread. "You ready, Rosco?" Jesse breaks the awkward silence that had built between them ever since Rosco had slowed down long enough for Luke to jump out into the ditch, "We are to go up there in search of something that I had forgotten about. Perhaps I can say I had hid my wedding ring in a secret location and had forgotten about it until this morning and that we are here to retrieve it."

Rosco nods and sighs heavy as he withdraws his keys from the ignition, his shaky hand lands upon the door handle before he glances over to Jesse with worried eyes. Worried eyes that startles Jesse. Jesse has known the sheriff for a lot of years and has fought with him through most of them to make sure the town was done right by him and Boss. But never before had Rosco allowed much emotion to Jesse or the Dukes other than for irritation and anger at them. But now they are working together to find Bo and yet worry is set in deeply in his bright blue eyes at the thought of approaching Hogg's new associates or business partners. Boss' own kin.

"What's the problem, Rosco?" Jesse slowly asks, weary of the amount of worry and dread in the aging sheriff's eyes.

Rosco opens his mouth to state something before closing it again. His mind returning to Craig's unusual mannerism this morning, of the blood on his clothing, and of the Dukes' story. He knew the Dukes wouldn't lie about anything, but especially about one of their own being hurt and in danger. And he feared what Luke was going to find in that barn, of where Craig had been walking out of when Rosco had first pulled up early this morning. Leaving Rosco to wonder if the youngest Duke was still alive and how much Craig had tortured him or put him through. "I'd rather not say at the moment, Mr. Duke," Rosco slowly states, deciding against what he had first originally started to say and he slowly opens the door and puts his right leg out, "Let's go and get this over with. I just hope this here plan of Luke's will work."

Jesse nods as he opens his door and slowly steps out before turning and watching Rosco step all the way out and silently closing the door. Taking a deep breath and saying a silent prayer, Jesse takes a look around the old farm, feeling like a stranger on the land he had called home for so many years. Finally, his attention comes to a halt upon the barn, his thoughts turn back to what Rosco had described that he saw of this Craig and of the blood they had seen on the hill. Only to install chills racing down his back of fear and worry for his youngest nephew.

Finishing his prayer for both of his nephews, he forces himself to turn around to find Rosco standing near the first step to the porch, waiting for him and motioning for him to join him. Jesse slowly nods and begins to follow Rosco up the thin steps onto the porch. "You ready?" Rosco asks as they reach the closed door.

"As ready as I'm gonna be," Jesse whispers back before stealing another glance back at the old barn before looking at Rosco and nodding.

Rosco inhales audibly as he opens the screen door and knocks loudly on the wooden door several times before closing the screen door, his hand resting on the butt of his gun out of habit. After a long moment, the wooden door is thrown open and a young thin woman looks back at Jesse with irritation in her dark eyes. "Sheriff Rosco Coltrane," she forces a smile as she opens the screen door to step out to join them, "Craig said you were here only a half hour or so ago. Something wrong? I mean, we didn't need anything then and we don't need anything now."

Rosco nods nervously. "I was here and he did tell me that. It's just that Mr. Duke here," he pauses to point at Jesse who forces a nervous smile and waves at her, "was who lived in this house before Hogg repossessed it a couple of days ago. And well, he stopped me down the road to tell me that he had left his wedding ring behind since they were rushed in packing and moving out of here. So I thought I'd bring him by so that he could retrieve it real quick."

She raises an eye brow at both of them and forces another nervous smile before glancing over her shoulder and into the house. "I'm sorry to be such a bother, Miss. I really am," Jesse speaks up to gather her attention back onto them, "but the ring is really important to me. You see, my wife died over twenty years ago and that is one of the few reminders I have of her. I use to wear it all the time, but then my fingers seemed to get thicker and the ring just wouldn't fit any more, so when that happened, I hid it in a secret department in my room. And as the sheriff pointed out, we were rushed in packing and moving out of here that I plainly forgot about it until this morning. It'd be greatly appreciated if I could just run in and grab it real quick. Wouldn't even take a minute. I promise, Miss."

She smiles apologetically at them. "I'm sorry for your loss, Mr. Duke. I am sure that the ring has great sentimental value to you," she pauses to leave Jesse hoping for the positive, "but I'm sorry, I can't let you in here. With the painting and all the work that we already started on your old house, it'd be a safety hazard to allow you in here. I'll tell you what," she pauses once more, eyeing the sheriff and the elderly Duke, "I'll make sure to look for it today and when or if I find it, I'll call Sheriff Coltrane here and he can come pick it up and bring it to you himself. I can't promise you anything more, I'm afraid."

Jesse inhales deeply. "I really don't care about no safety hazard. At my age, I'm lucky enough to be able to be healthy and as strong as I have been for so long. What I care about is my ring and if it consists of me inhaling dangerous fumes and tripping over your work stuff, then so be it," Jesse desperately states, fighting back the urge to look back at the barn.

"Sorry Mr. Duke," she shakes her head before she is interrupted by a deep voice inside the house and a tall muscular man steps out and anger crosses his face.

"Sheriff Rosco Coltrane! I already -"

"Calm down, Craig," she interrupts him as she places a caring hand upon his strong shoulder, "he's here with Mr. Duke who had owned the farm before Hogg repossessed it. He's here to retrieve his wedding ring that he had hidden in his room and that he forgot about. I was just explaining that it would be too dangerous for him and that if we find it, we'll give it to Rosco here to run back to him."

"That's right, Mr. Duke. We're sorry, but we can't allow you or the sheriff to step one foot in the house due to all our repairs that is going on right now," he pauses and puts up a hand to halt Jesse who begins to argue, "I'm sorry, Mr. Duke. This is our house now, not your's. We say the house is unfit for company to walk through, it's unfit and no one will enter the house. We are not going to be risked being sued over your own bravery. Now if you can't respect our wishes, and since the sheriff is already here and is apparently on your side, we'll call Commissioner Hogg and see what he can do about it."

"No need for that," Jesse shakes his head and takes a step back and Rosco slowly follows suit, "sorry to be a bother to you two. I'd appreciate it greatly if you'd give the ring to Rosco once you do find it, as I said, it is of great value to me. Thank-you for your time and enjoy the farm. I know I did." He forces another smile before slowly turning around to walk down the step and over to Rosco's dirty patrol car and looks up at the dark dreary sky. As Rosco gets to the driver's seat, Jesse states, "It's gonna rain again."

Rosco eyes the Duke patriarch questionably before opening the door and getting in behind the wheel and slams the door shut just as Jesse does the same. For a moment they eye the couple as they slowly make their way back inside the old house, slamming the wooden door shut behind them. "They're a lovely couple, now aren't they?" Rosco states sarcastically, "Craig changed clothes since I left. Not a stain on him."

Jesse nods as Rosco slowly backs out of the drive way, his attention going to the barn in hope of seeing something within it, but find it too dark to see much of anything. "Let's go to where we are to meet up with Luke. He won't be there yet, but at least we'll be there whenever he does get there," Jesse slowly states, silently hoping that they were able to waste enough time for Luke to do whatever he was thinking of doing.

**01010101 01010101 0101010101 0101010101 010101010101 01**

Looking up at the old barn, sweat slowly drips down Luke's tense neck as his mind remains focused upon the blood covered fabric in his pocket, of the blood and the prints he had seen in the mud. His imagination builds within him to display vivid scenes of all that has happened to his younger cousin; to his best friend. Sighing heavily, he attempts to ignore the thoughts as he slowly slips into the dark shadow barn to send fear building within him. Despite the gray sky that looms outside, dark shadows covers the barn, growing darker in the corners and along side the walls, giving ample room for someone to hide. Or ample room for them to be hiding Bo.

Knowing the barn like the back of his hand after years of daily chores and hard work that lead to the barn, Luke is quick to be able to walk around the floor of the barn to find little to nothing out of the ordinary how it had been before they had left. Leaving only the loft to search.

Biting his lower lip in fear and worry, he slowly makes his way to the weak ladder, not knowing if he should be hoping of finding Bo up there or not. Looking up the ladder, he begins to doubt that Bo could be up there. Bo wouldn't walk up there on his own and it'd be impossible for someone to carry another up there without the ladder breaking or getting stuck. Shaking his head, Luke grabs onto the ladder, knowing it is best to look everywhere no matter how low the chances may be that he'll be up there and he slowly begins to climb up the ladder. Nearly reaching the top, he pauses momentarily, knowing that once he raises his head above the loft floor, he'd be vulnerable of an attack if someone was up here with Bo.

Sighing heavily, he forces himself up another notch on the ladder to slowly look across the hay covered loft that is darker than the barn floor had been. His heart comes to a dead halt as he is quick to see a still dark shadow that looks to be of a tall lanky person sitting on the floor against the wall, his arms tied up with a rope over his head and tied onto a thick metal rung that hangs a foot out of the wall with a large knob at the far end. The lanky shadow's legs are extended and lie as still as the rest of the dark shadowy body. "Bo," Luke hears himself whisper as his eyes fall away from Bo's lanky shadowy figure to reach upon another tall looking shadow that sits upon what looks to be a overturned bucket only a foot away from Bo. The dark shadowy figure of a gun promptly held in his steady hand, pointed at Bo.

Taking advantage of the gun man looking at Bo, Luke silently pulls himself to his feet and takes a couple of quick steps closer to them and fear is quick to halt Luke at seeing Bo's broken and bloody body come out of the shadows as he gets closer to them. The gun man yelps out and jumps to his feet as he notices Luke and gets closer to Bo and kicks at Bo's outstretched legs and Bo cries out in pain, his eyes opening to look at the gun man. "I thought you told us they weren't out there!" Anger intensifies within Luke as the gunman backhands Bo across the face with the butt of the gun and Bo cries out as his head is thrown sideways and for a moment Bo's and Luke's eyes meet. The gunman quickly grabs Bo's jaw to force Bo to look at him, "You said it was only you! You liar!" He quickly throws Bo's head back in disgust and being to weak to defy the gunman's gravity, his head is thrown into the wall.

Luke inhales as he forces himself to look away from Bo and ignore his fear he has for his cousin to focus upon the gunman, knowing it is up to Luke to save his cousin. In order to do that, he'll need to get rid of the gun man first. "Back away from him," Luke states as he steals another step forward and the gun man shakes his head as he steps back closer to Bo, putting the gun to Bo's head. Noticing the blank look on Bo's face, lacking the fear that would normally be there at being held at gun point and not even flinching away from the barrel of the gun, Luke's heart freezes in fear and worry of what that means. Swallowing hardly to refocus his attention upon the gun man, Luke takes another step and the gun man presses the gun even tighter against Bo's skull.

"Back away and I'm pulling the trigger and you'll be covered with whatever is within that ugly head of your cousin's here!" the gun man threatens, his index finger shaky against the thin trigger. "I'll be more than glad to do it, don't give me a reason to do it!"

Luke sighs, knowing the man means what he says, but also knowing that he'll do his fulfill his threat whether Luke complies with it or not. "I'm afraid I can't do that," Luke boldly states before he throws the pocket knife, that he had worked out of it's case while the gunman had been making his threat, to hit against the old splintered wood a foot behind the gunman's head. The gunman is quick to jump at the movement of the knife and the loud thud the knife makes and as he turns to look at what had happened, Luke quickly lunges forward to slam the man's thick body into the thin wall. "You're dumber than what you appear," Luke hisses in his ear as he yanks the gun from the shocked gunman's head and is quick to jam it against his head, "now I have the gun. What you think I should do with it?"

"Drop it or I'll scream. My brother will come with a bigger gun than that and can finish you and your cousin off in one shot," the gun man squirms under the pressure of the gun and Luke's tight hold of him.

Nodding, Luke takes the gun away from his head and powerfully backhands him across the face as he had done to Bo only minutes ago. "Now you've got a hint of what Bo felt," Luke spits in his face as he jams the safety on on the gun before throwing it out the open loft door and the man hisses in anger. Holding the man tight against the wall, Luke steals a look down at Bo to notice that he has drifted unconscious again, his thin chest barely moving. Fearing for his cousin's life, he eyes the man harshly before shoving him across the room where the man falls upon his rear end and Luke falls to his knees to keep the man down while he grabs the thick long line of rope that lies near by. "I have half a mind to shove you out after the gun. That's what you deserve," Luke hisses as he ties up the man's feet tightly before tying the man's feet to his hands in front of him, tying knots that he had learned in the Marines. Knowing there is no way he'd be able to break lose from the ropes before bringing the left over rope up from his tied wrists up and around his mouth and secure the rope in his open mouth with a tight knot on the back of his head. "Now you can try to scream all you want. Your dumb brother won't hear a sound." With that, Luke stiffly stands up and sends a quick kick at the guy's head before turning and walking to the edge of the loft to look out, relieved to find no one outside before bending over to pick up his pocket knife,

Luke quickly makes his way over to his tied up cousin and drops to his knees as he places his fingers against Bo's blood covered neck to find a soft pulse before he cuts the rope from the metal rung and Bo's arms weakly fall upon Luke. Ignoring them, Luke continues to cut the ropes from Bo's feet before cutting his wrists loose and Bo lets out a throaty moan of pain, "It's OK cuz. I'm here…I'm gonna get you some help," Luke states as he throws the rope aside and steals another look at the tied up gun man before slowly and carefully putting an arm under Bo's neck and another under his knees before slowly getting up. "Damn," Luke hisses as he reaches the stairs, wondering how he is to get Bo down there in his condition. "Well Bo, this won't be too comfortable," he states as he grunts while trying to readjust Bo's still body over his shoulder, with Bo's head near his back and his feet dangling by Luke's knees. "Better than nothing," he states doubtfully as he turns around and places his feet down upon the first rung and slowly steps down. Luke hisses out in fear and worry as he hears Bo's head hit the edge of the wooden loft floor on his way down, but Luke keeps walking down, knowing he has to get Bo out and off of their old property before the gunman's brother shows up.

"OK Bo, we're down," Luke whispers to his unconscious cousin, once again rearranging Bo so that his arm will be under his neck and knees to see fresh blood tickling down Bo's face. "We're halfway there, cuz. Just hang on." Luke makes his way to the far end of the open barn and takes a long cautious look at the farm house before he quickly walks out of the barn and into the thin wooded area, trying to reassure himself that Rosco should only be several feet away beyond the wooded area now as Bo's weight heavily sinks into his numb arms. "We're almost there," he continues to talk to Bo in hope of comforting him someway as he slowly makes his way in between the trees and shrubbery, trying to avoid hitting Bo against anything more. "Damn," he hisses as cold large drips of rain begin to beat upon them while the muddy ground tries to swallow Luke's feet as he walks forward.

Several minutes seem to last hours of walking through the thinly wooded area before he walks into the open ditch area, Bo's weight heavily sinking into his arms and shoulders. "Bo," a soft familiar voice shatters the silence that had hung heavily in the rainy day; the single word of Bo's name was thickly filled with horror and worry. At hearing the familiar voice, Luke draws his attention away from Bo's bloody and bruised body and up to find his uncle stepping out of the passenger seat of Rosco's patrol car. "Bo," Jesse states louder and filled with panic as he stumbles down the wet ditch to catch himself on the hood of the car. "Is he. . ."he begins to ask only to cut himself, unable to ask the dreaded question, as he finally reaches Luke as Luke is careful to walk down the steep ditch towards his uncle.

Luke gives Jesse a sad and short shake of his head before he glances up as Rosco slowly steps out from behind the wheel and walks to the hood of the patrol car, looking down at them. Looking back at Jesse, he ignores the icy needles of rain that continues to wash over him, and says, "No, not yet," he pauses, realizing how horrible that sounds and reality sinks in that he may be losing his cousin and his own panic and anxiety speeds up within him, "he's unconscious as of now. He has a soft and slow heart rate, but he's having difficulty breathing on his own." He steps away from Jesse to begin up the wet muddy ditch and Jesse is quick to follow him. Reaching the hood of the patrol car, he looks over at Rosco and says, "You're going to have to take us to the hospital. You got an air tank in the trunk?"

Rosco eyes them both startled, his mind racing within him of all that is happening before he pulls himself out of his own fears and anxiety to nod and walks over to the trunk.

"I'll sit in the back seat with him," Jesse quickly states as he opens the back door of the patrol car.

Luke shakes his head. "I'm already covered in his blood, there is no need -"

"Do I look like I'm worried about getting his blood on me? Because of right now, that is the least of my problems," Jesse quickly snaps at him as he eyes his oldest nephew for a long moment, a look daring Luke to be bold enough to argue with him. When Luke doesn't say anything, Jesse climbs into the back seat and pushes himself across the seat to sit next to the farthest door.

Luke glances down at Bo for a long moment, not willing to let go of his cousin in fear of it being the last time he'll be able to see him alive again. Though knowing better than to argue with his uncle, he inhales deeply before he bends down while holding Bo closely to him before he helps set Bo's long body down on the back seat, his bloody head resting upon Jesse's lap. Luke looks at Bo for a long moment before he reaches over and caringly brushes a blood soaked hair out from Bo's closed eyes before he climbs back out of the patrol car to watch Rosco slamming the trunk lid closed. "Here it is," Rosco holds it up to show the oldest Duke cousin before walks over to the driver's side back door and opens it to where Jesse is sitting.

Feeling hopeless, Luke watches from the open backseat passenger door as Rosco helps Jesse place the air mask on Bo's mouth and nose and putting the band behind Bo's head before Rosco sets the tank on Bo's thin chest and turning it on. Doing something he hasn't done in a long time, Luke closes the door while saying a prayer for Bo while climbing into the passenger seat and slamming that door shut. Closing his prayer, he turns to Rosco as he slams his door closed and states, "Let's hit it Rosco."

Rosco nods as he quickly backs out of the ditches and onto the dirt road where he quickly presses onto the accelerator to send the car racing forward into the heavy rain, hitting the lights that cuts through the silent world.


	6. Chapter 6

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE:** I apologize for the long wait in between chapters...either I've been busy or my muses don't want to cooperate with this story. I will try to do better. Thanks for reviews...keep 'em coming. They are very much appreciated. Thank you to all who are taking the time to read my story. It means a lot. Thanks!_

_**DISCLAIMER:** I do not own Hazzard, the show, or the characters. Nor do I write for profit. I write for the fun of it._

_**CHAPTER SIX**_

Jesse Duke feels his heart tightening painfully within him as he looks down at his youngest nephew whose blood covered head rests upon his lap, an air mask covering most of his face. He finds himself caringly brushing his blood covered hair out of his face as Luke had done before climbing out of the backseat as his mind races within him. Races from their current situation before rewinding into the past of Bo's childhood and back again. Through Bo's entire life it was Bo who Jesse had worried about the most with how Bo often acts before thinking, always the one that seems to trip over his own pride. Jesse had always worried about losing Bo in one of his crazy car stints or in some fight that was too big for him to handle. But over the loss of their farm?

Looking down at Bo, Jesse feels a tear break loose from his eyes to tickle down his cheeks and he allows them to soak into his thick beard and mustache. "C'mon Bo," he hears himself whisper to his nephew as he glances up to find Rosco pulling into the hospital's parking lot, "help is almost here." Sighing heavily, he glances back down and at noticing how still Bo's thin chest remains, forces Jesse's own heart to come to a painful halt. Forcing himself to breath in and out, he places a couple of trembling fingers upon Bo's bloody neck and a chill runs down his back at not feeling a pulse. "I don't feel anything," he looks up desperately to see Luke fearfully looking back at him, his fingers remaining on Bo's still pulse. Looking down at Bo, he is gripped by fear for his young nephew's life. "There's no p -" he begins to say, his voice rising in his panic before a small pulse beats upon Jesse's callused fingers from Bo's neck, "there's one."

"Damn," Luke hisses from the front seat, his own worry and fear apparent on his face before he turns to look up ahead, "Rosco, pull up behind the ambulance there. There has to be a nurse or a paramedic that could get Bo in quicker than us carrying him into the ER waiting room."

Rosco nods shortly from behind the wheel and maneuvers his patrol car to the curb in front of the emergency room entry doors and Luke is quick to open his door and jump out. Jesse watches from the backseat as one of the paramedics quickly leaves the parked ambulance and walks over to Luke, yelling something at him. Luke seems to shake his head before he comes to a halt and turns around to face the paramedic and to Jesse from within closed doors, they seem to be talking over something. As Luke points a blood stained arm towards the backseat, Jesse glances down at Bo, only to notice Bo's cold skin to be noticeably whiter and his lips have a blue tint to them despite the air mask. "C'mon Bo," Jesse states as he puts his fingers to Bo's neck once more and once again, feels nothing for a long moment before he feels a thin distant pulse. "help is here, Bo. Just hang on."

Jesse glances up from Bo as the door across the seat opens to find the paramedic Luke had been talking to, to climb into the back seat. "How is he?" he whispers to Jesse as he leans over Bo to put his own fingers on Bo's neck, "He's barely hanging on there, isn't he?"

"Yes sir," Jesse slowly nods as the paramedic checks Rosco's air tank.

"Well the air tank is out of air. Don't think it's offering Bo here any help," the paramedic reaches over and carefully takes the mask off and throws it on the floor at Jesse's feet. "OK sir, I'm going to pick him up and carry him out of here to put him on the stretcher. We'll get him hooked up to IV's and give him an air tank that really works and bring him to the ER and see if the doctor on call can help him any."

The paramedic eyes Jesse briefly and Jesse slowly nods as he watches the paramedic gently picking Bo up before he slowly makes his way out of the car and places Bo upon the stretcher that another paramedic had wheeled over from the parked ambulance. "Bo," Jesse hears himself say aloud as he watches the two paramedics quickly working together to get Bo strapped into the stretcher and to get him hooked up to the air tank that ht he paramedic had promised. "No, no," Jesse hears himself whimper in fear as tears break lose again from his eyes to roll down his cheeks as the paramedics help push Bo to the doors that automatically opens at their arrival.

"I'm so sorry, Jesse. About all of this," Rosco says from the front seat to break his silence, "I hope that they'll be able to help Bo. I really do."

Jesse looks up from the glass doors now that Bo is no where to be seen to look at Rosco who eyes him through the rearview mirror. "I know you do, Rosco," Jesse states as Luke opens Jesse's door, "so do I."

They are all silent once again as their thoughts fall upon Bo in worry and fear for what the next minutes or hours has in store for the youngest Duke, for them all. "Rosco," Luke finally speaks up, his voice calm despite his own harsh emotions that rage within him, "could you go and pick Daisy up? She's still waiting for us to return to the house with word on Bo. I never thought of sending word out to her, she's got to be going nuts all alone in that house," he pauses for a long moment as Rosco silently nods in the front seat, "thank-you, Rosco. You've helped us a lot," Luke goes silent again, knowing Rosco's involvement in finding Bo and hopefully putting Craig and his wife in jail may get him in trouble by Boss. Looking back at Jesse, he states, "I think we should go wait on word for Bo."

"Hurry up and wait," Jesse grumbles as he stiffly climbs out from the back seat, his saddened eyes falls upon his overalls and shirt sleeves that are now stained in blood. In Bo's blood.

* * *

Gripping tightly upon the leather steering wheel, Sheriff Coltrane feels his heart tightening painfully within him as his mind fixates upon the broken and bloodied body of Bo Duke as they had placed his still body on the stretcher. Over the years, Rosco hadn't lost much love over any of the Dukes as they had always found a way to escape from him, evading his speed traps, as well as finding a way to ruin Hogg's masterful schemes he came up with. Not that Rosco always agreed with Hogg and what his plans, but Hogg was the Boss and if Rosco wanted to keep being the sheriff, he knew he had to do what Hogg wanted him to do. No matter what. Despite the eventful past that Coltrane shared against the Duke family, especially the boys, he would never wish any of them harm. How could he? They were just good ol' boys doing what they knew best. Which was going out of their way to do what is right, to help those in needs, and to make right what Hogg has done wrong. Deep down, Rosco even envies the Dukes. The boys. Envies them for being strong enough to stand up for what is right. To go against Hogg and his crooked ways.

Bo Duke was only doing what he was taught and raised to do, to do what is right. To right what Hogg had wronged. And in the process he had gotten in the midst of Hogg's plans, of Hogg's nephew and niece, and now lies in the emergency room relying on the good Lord above and the doctors to help right the wrong that Hogg's new employees had done to him. If Hogg hadn't been so greedy…

Rosco shakes his head. It wasn't all of Hogg's fault. If he had been strong enough to stand up for the Dukes, to stand up against Hogg, perhaps he wouldn't be out seeking Daisy with such horrible news. Dread instantly hits Rosco as he slowly comes to full realization of what Luke had asked him to do. He had heard him asking him to go get Daisy, but didn't think of what picking up Daisy would entail. He couldn't just make Daisy get in the car and take her to the hospital without explaining what he was doing and what had happened to her cousin. The thought forces his stomach to churn. Being the sheriff of Hazzard, it was his job to rely the bad news if someone's loved one died in a car accident or was found dead or hurt, but he seldom had to do it. But when he had to do it, his stomach would churn and he would become numb as he fought for the words to explain what had happened, fought to know how to help the person he was telling the horrible news to. He couldn't just pat them on the back and say it would be OK, because it wasn't going to be OK.

And thinking of telling Daisy about Bo seems to accelerate the fear and the dread that comes with the job of relaying the bad news. It's bad telling anyone, even though, on any other day he'd consider the Dukes his enemy, but telling Daisy about Bo seemed worse than it ever had been before. Perhaps through their strained relationship of always going against each other he has gotten to know them better than the others. And whether or not he cared to admit it to himself and anyone else, he cared for the Dukes. He liked what they stood for, even though that made them against him. Deep down, he accepted the facts for what it was. He did his job and they did their's.

Dread and fear sink heavily within him as he spots Cooter's rusty tow truck parked along side the road on the curb up ahead where Rosco had parked this morning when the Dukes had flagged him down. He swallows hard with thoughts of Daisy seeing the drop off, the scuff marks we had seen, and Bo's blood against the tree trunk. It's Cooter's tow truck, but it didn't take Rosco long to think that he could have picked Daisy up before he went searching on his own. After all, Luke said they left Daisy home alone to wait for Bo or them to return. Bo was definitely not going to be returning home for the next few days and with the rest of the Dukes out searching for Bo, they hadn't been home. Knowing Daisy, Rosco knew, that she wouldn't stay cooped up inside some strange house fearfully waiting for word on her disappearing cousin. She'd do her own search after awhile or do something in order to help find Bo.

Forcing himself to breathe, Rosco parks his old patrol car behind Cooter's tow truck and is quick to get out of the car to run across the street to where the woods lies. Running a few feet into the woods, Rosco stops and looks around before calling out, "Cooter…Daisy!" He pauses as his voice echoes off the thick trees and down the drop off and he glances around more, hoping to catch sight of them. Praying they haven't found what Luke had found this morning. "This is Sheriff Rosco Coltrane! I've just entered the woods where y'all did," he pauses as he waits for a response other than his own echoing voice, "I need you to stop what you are doing and come to me. I've been sent to talk to you."

Rosco lowers his hands he had been yelling through in hopes of his voice carrying farther and he takes a couple more steps into the woods, spotting two pairs of fresh foot prints. "Daisy Duke! Cooter Davenport! If you hear me, you are ordered to stop what you are doing and come here! It's important!" Rosco yells out as raw emotions begin to eat thickly through him of the day's events. Silence surrounds him and as he walks along watching the two new pairs of footsteps, his imagination builds vivid scenes of all that Bo had gone through. From early this morning to this afternoon when Luke had found him; of the pain and fear he had to go through in his quest to get his family farm back into the family. His family farm that Hogg had greedily took from him by running him off the road. And now…

Rosco comes to a halt as tears sting his eyes. Tears of guilt, fear, and horror of what this day has produced for everyone. He angrily wipes his eyes with the back of his hand and as he glances up he sees two dark shadow in the distance growing closer. He takes a step forward. "Daisy…Cooter?" he yells out at the shadows as they continue to slowly get closer, "This is Sheriff Coltrane."

Rosco walks a few steps closer to them as they slowly walk towards him and he slowly is able to identify them as Cooter and Daisy as Daisy leans on Cooter's shoulder for support. Cooter has a protective arm around her shoulder and as the stop a foot in front of him, he sees tears running down Daisy's face and a disturbed look on Cooter's normally crazed face. "Well hey Sheriff," Cooter states as Daisy slowly stands up and a look of horror crosses her face as she eyes the sheriff and Cooter's face gains the same expression, "what happened to you, Sheriff?"

Rosco eyes the two questionably before he glances down and for the first time notices several dark stains of blood splattered upon his dark blue uniform shirt. "Never mind that," he hears himself say, "I've been sent to retrieve Daisy here by Luke. But if you want to come, I know better than to try stop you, Cooter."

"To retrieve me?" Daisy asks before giving a sarcastic laugh, "Why would Luke ask you to retrieve me? He's the one that left me home alone all day. He knew where I was. Why didn't he retrieve me himself?" Her arms go folded across her chest and she gives the sheriff a demanding look. "Besides, usually when you retrieve something…it is something. Not someone. You make it sound like Luke thinks you're his dog and he sent his dog to retrieve his thrown stick or something."

Rosco rolls his eyes. "OK fine. He didn't send me to retrieve you. He sent me to pick you up -"

"What? As in to arrest me?" she yells, eyeing the sheriff wildly.

"Shhh Daisy," Cooter wisely states, "I think we should listen to Rosco and hear what he has to say."

Rosco nods appreciatively at Cooter. "I'm not here to arrest anyone. I'm here in order to help Luke and Jesse with something they asked me to do," Rosco calmly states.

"Y'all found Bo, ain't ya?" Cooter is quick to ask, "That's his blood on your shirt, ain't it?"

Daisy's eyes grow big with fear as she eyes Cooter and then Rosco. "No, no, no," she mutters and more tears flow from her eyes.

Rosco hesitantly nods at the two, dreading what he is going to have to tell them. "Luke found Bo a half hour ago or so. I just helped them take him to Tri-County," Rosco forcefully says, "I can explain on the way there."

Both Cooter and Daisy quietly nod at Rosco before Rosco slowly turns around and slowly walks back out through the forest and back to the road. Approaching his car, he comes to the bold realization that there was no way that he could have transferred Bo's bloody body to the hospital without getting any of his blood in the car. If Cooter and Daisy were to ride in his car, they'd see his blood. Rosco is quick to turn around. "I don't think you should ride with me after all. The car's kinda messy," he fumbles, "how about you follow me and I can explain when we get there?"

"Not a chance, Rosco!" Cooter angrily announces, "We've waited this long for answers…we're not waiting any longer!" With that, Cooter leaves Daisy's side and moves to the back seat of the car and as he throws open the door, he is quick to realize why Rosco was reluctant to drive them to the hospital. "No, no, no," he hears himself say aloud as he sees the blood staining the backseat and his mind goes awash with all that could have happened to his friend. Weakly he slams the door shut and walks back to Daisy and eyes the sheriff, "I've got a better idea. How about I tow your car and I'll drive us to the hospital and you can explain what had happened?"

Rosco nods. "Fine with me," he slowly states.

"Why? What's wrong with the sheriff's car?" Daisy questions with tear filled eyes, she glances over at the sheriff and over at Cooter for an explanation before taking a step forward.

Cooter is quick to step in front of her. "Nothing is wrong with it. It's messy like he said and a pretty little lady like you don't need to see it," Cooter quickly states before eyeing the sheriff, "how about you take Daisy across the street while I get your car hooked up? Then y'all can climb aboard."

After a few minutes of watching from across the street and avoiding Daisy's worried questions, Cooter finishes hooking Rosco's patrol car up to his tow truck and parks in front of them. Rosco is quick to open the door and help Daisy up before climbing into the passenger seat, squishing Daisy in the middle of him and Cooter. As Rosco slams the door shut, Cooter quickly takes off on the dirt road and a thick air of silence surrounds the cab of the truck.

"OK Rosco," Daisy states to penetrate the silence, "what happened to Bo? Is he…?" she goes silent, no longer able to ask the dreaded question.

Rosco looks out through his passenger window as he struggles to know where to begin and what to say. Finally, he turns and forces himself to look at Daisy and Cooter, clears his throat and starts his story by saying, "I left your old place this morning after running an errand for Hogg there and on my way back from your old farm, Jesse and Luke forced me to stop where they were in full panic mode. . ." Rosco continues to tell the story, not leaving anything out, as it had happened as far as he knew before finishing his story by saying, "Jesse did feel a small pulse when I had pulled up at the ER entrance and some paramedics quickly put Bo on a stretcher and rushed him into the ER. That's when Luke sent me to go get Daisy and to bring her to the hospital."

"That's why you didn't want me to look in the backseat," Daisy slowly states, "you didn't want me to see Bo's blood."

* * *

Staring through the window over looking the staff parking lot and an large field across a side dirt road, Luke sees nothing but Bo's lifeless body lying upon the stretcher. His cousin's fear and pain stricken eyes glance back at him from within, pleading Luke to help him, to save him; as they had when he had climbed into their loft this afternoon. Only to produce more guilt to rip violently within Luke's tense body. He had been feeling guilty for his harsh and accusatory words he had spoken towards Bo yesterday ever since he had walked into their new bedroom to find Bo miss. But now new and fresh guilt builds upon the guilt he had already been feeling. Guilt for not keeping his word that he had spoken several times to Bo. "Bo, I won't let anyone hurt you. They even look at you wrong and they'll be answering to me. I will protect you. I am here for you, Bo," his words that he had spoken years ago while they were both growing up are quick to be thrown back at Luke. Words Luke had spoken to comfort an eight year old Bo after Bo was tripped and beaten by a twelve year old bully, a bully that Luke repaid with the same treatment that he had given to Bo. But worse.

Now years later, he is reminded of his promises he had given Bo. Not only then, but on other occasions, through words and through Luke's actions to make sure no one would hurt Bo. Deep down, Luke knows that it would almost be impossible to make sure no one hurts Bo. Unless Luke followed Bo where ever he went and never left his side. As it was, Bo had left on his own free will this morning by himself and was the one that found trouble. How could Luke prevent that?

But seeing Bo's pain and fear filled eyes looking back at him, Luke can only see and feel his broken promise he had spoken years ago. Bo's eyes pleading for his help, his protection that he failed to give him. In Luke's own eyes, he had failed Bo.

And now, Bo may die before Luke will ever be able to apologize to him for what he had done. For what he had said.

"Lukas Duke!" a familiar voice full of anger and pain loudly penetrates his thoughts and he quickly turns around to find Daisy and Cooter walking at him, followed by Rosco. Besides him, Luke sees Jesse throw his torn newspaper onto the side table and stiffly stand up. "How could you leave me in that house all by myself like that? You leave me to look for Bo and what? You forget about me?" Tears are rolling down her tan cheeks as she stares accusatory at Luke.

Jesse quickly steps in front of Daisy and Daisy is quick to accept his hug. "Shhh Daisy. It's not Luke's fault," Jesse soothingly says and steps back, "we just got busy looking for Bo and -"

"And y'all forgot about me," she interrupts Jesse, "I was told to sit and stay like a dog. Wait for Bo to return y'all say. Hours go by and nothing from no one! All I can think of is that he's dead. Perhaps all of you as well! How was I to know differently?"

Luke slowly shakes his head as he inhales heavily in attempt to cool his own temper, his temper that he seldom allows to be seen. "You weren't. I'm sorry, Daisy. I am," Luke places a comforting hand on her shoulder, "I don't blame you for being upset at me. Heck, I'd be upset as well if I was in your place. But what else were we to do?" he shrugs his shoulders, "I found that cloth, his blood. Then Rosco explained about that guy at that took our farm and how he acted. I knew it was Bo. I knew he was hurt. Or worse," Luke pauses as he fights back his own emotions, "I couldn't just stop and go back to the house to get you. We do that, it could have…probably would have been too late. I'm sorry, Daisy."

With that, Daisy exhales and nods before hugging Luke tightly. She knew that it wasn't Luke's fault, yet her anger and fear had to be directed at someone. "I know. I'm just so worried," she pauses as she steps away from Luke, "I'm sorry. It's not your fault."

Luke eyes Daisy momentarily before nodding and stepping back to the window, not really interested in talk or company. At the moment, all he wanted was to hear and see how Bo was and with each second that ticks away on the clock that hangs behind the nurses desk, the more intense his fear and worry grows within him for his cousin's life and health.

"Any word, yet?" Cooter asks behind Luke, looking from the Duke elder to Luke at the window.

Jesse sighs heavily and shakes his head. "They always say, the later the better. But the longer the wait is, the worse I feel about it," Jesse states how Luke is feeling, "I just keep seeing him lying my lap with the air mask on. All that blood…we lost him for a second in the car." He goes silent as tears swell in his bright blue eyes and he weakly takes a step back to sit back down on the chair he had been sitting on. Instead of picking the paper back up, he rests his head back upon the light blue wall to stare up at the ceiling, his tears soaking in his beard.

Despite her own harsh feelings and the tears falling from her eyes, Daisy slowly walks over to sit next to Jesse and rests her head upon his shoulder. "It's OK Jesse. Remember what you tol' us a few years back when Bo was in that racing accident and had to be put into an induced coma for a couple of days?" she questions, bringing up a past story that no one liked to think or talk about.

"That Bo was too tough and stubborn to die," Jesse weakly responds, eyeing his niece, his mind momentarily leaving their current situation to five years ago when another driver purposely wrecked Bo. Bo had been hit hard from behind from a strong rivalry from out of town that had sent Bo's car spinning out of control. A good friend of Bo's drove around the corner to hit Bo on the driver's door and sent Bo's car off the road and rolling down a steep hill before a large and thick tree had stopped Bo from going any farther. Bo was rushed to the hospital with little hope of ever surviving the horrible wreck and even if he had miraculously survived his injuries, he would never be the same.

But Bo being Bo, went and proved everyone wrong. Not only did he walk out of the hospital alive after several weeks confined to a hospital bed, but he was the same as he was when he entered that stock car that horrible afternoon. The same except for a few scars and being plagued by nightmares.

"Exactly. He was too tough and stubborn to die then," Daisy finally states, "and he's too stubborn and tough to die now. You just need to have faith, Jesse."

"Whaddya know?" Jesse forces a small grin through the tears, "You actually do listen to me after all."

* * *

"Dukes," a male voice loudly announces their name to abruptly to pull Luke out of thoughts and he turns around to find Jesse and Daisy quickly standing up. Rosco and Cooter step away from their chosen place in the corner and all walking towards a tall slender and balding doctor that stands in front of the nurses' station and besides the hall ways. Luke eyes them all questionably, caught in the middle of wanting to know how Bo is and being afraid to hear his report. As if not hearing what the doctor has to say will make Bo better. Luke shakes his head and inhales heavily before he reluctantly follows his family up to where the doctor stands, looking at his clipboard.

"How's my boy, doctor?" Jesse eagerly asks in front of Luke.

The doctor nods at Jesse before eyeing everyone else. "I'll be Bo's main doctor. Doctor Harshaw," he states as he readjusts his thin framed glasses, "Bo is pretty beaten up. A lot of cuts and bruises. Several stitches in a few of the cuts. Our main worry has been his concussion, he has suffered a pretty bad concussion. He broke a couple of ribs, one that had punctured his lung and had made it near to impossible for him to breathe. He had a lot of internal bleeding," he pauses for a long moment as he eyes his clipboard, "he broke his right knee and bruised his right shoulder. Looks like he took a pretty heavy fall on them."

"Is Bo going to be OK?" Luke questions after a moment of silence, wanting to know for sure.

Harshaw nods. "Like I said, he's pretty beaten up, but he's in stable condition. His heart rate and breathing were very minimal when he was brought into the ER, but they have increased greatly with some medical help. I'd say, as long as everything goes as planned, that he'll be outta here in a week, max," he pauses with a calm smile, "in fact, he even awakened several minutes ago. He was asking for Luke."

Everyone glances back at Luke. "Can I see him?" Luke is quick to ask.

Harshaw nods. "For now, I am asking for one visitor at a time. That way it'll produce a little less stress on him. Perhaps by tomorrow if he is continuing to get stronger and healthier we'll get rid of the limited amount of people," the doctor answers, "follow me."

Luke nods as he makes his way in between Daisy and Cooter to follow Harshaw down a brightly lit hallway with a few doctors and nurses scattered around. A strong smell of cleansers, sick sweat, and vomit is heavily in the air. After a long minute of silence, Harshaw comes to a stop in front of a closed door and Luke is quick to note that the name card on the side of the room reads: BO DUKE. "Just a couple of points to make first. He looks pretty bad and all the medical equipment make it look worse than what it is. His lungs are still weak so for the next couple of days he's going to be relying on help from air tubes in his nose. Plus with the monitors, the IV's…you get the drift," Harshaw gives Luke a nervous smile, "secondly, he just woke up within the last fifteen minutes or so. Perhaps a half hour ago. Plus we have him on some pretty high pain medication right now. So I don't know how with it he's going to be when you go in there. He may start talking about green elephants chasing down purple cats for all I know." Luke nods and Harshaw shrugs as he opens the door. "I do know he was awake enough to ask for you, though. He's got a room to himself."

"Thanks," Luke mutters as he walks past the doctor and into the dark room to be greeted by loud irritating beeping sounds as the door goes shut behind him. Luke takes a last look at the door, half excited to see his cousin and half scared to see the pain and fear he must be in. Turning back around, Luke slowly steps up to the hospital bed, eyes the monitors, before looking down to find Bo lying with his eyes closed on the bed. Luke's heart seems to come to a halt within him as he the ghostly pale skin surrounded by bruising and cuts on his face and bare arms. A clear tube is linked around his ears and under his throat with two prongs stuck into his nostrils of his bruised nose, several needles stick into his arms leading to IV bags hanging behind his bed. And under his thin hospital gown, Bo's thin chest heaves heavily in and out in his struggle to breathe through his injuries. Only to remind Luke of how he had found Bo tied in the loft.

A brief moment passes as Luke watches Bo lying asleep on the hospital bed, thankful for the encouraging words he had heard from his doctor, before Bo's bruised eye lids slowly and forcefully open. Luke hears himself gasp aloud and stands up as Bo eyes him blankly for a long moment before recognition clearly enters Bo's dark blue eyes. "Luke!" he states excitedly as he attempts to shove himself up in bed only to hiss out in pain.

"Shhhh Bo. I'm right here," Luke states as he bends over to gently wipe a thick lock of hair out of Bo's eyes, "just take it easy, buddy. OK?"

Bo eyes Luke with pained eyes. It was never like Bo to take anything easy and if anyone knew it, it would be Luke. "Thank-you Luke," Bo slowly and forcefully states before coughing chronically for a long moment and Luke is quick to pour Bo a glass of water and carefully helps him take a drink from it. Bo silently watches Luke place it back as he struggles to catch his breath. With Luke's attention back onto him, Bo forcefully states, "if it wasn't for you," Bo pauses for a long moment, frustration clear in his pained eyes, "I'd be dead."

Luke finds him shaking his head despite the firm belief that he was right. What other intentions could those gun men have for Bo? The man Luke had fought and thrown off the loft treated Bo hatefully and violently and Luke's gut told him strongly that the guy was just waiting on the word to pull that trigger. Yet, he couldn't grasp why anyone would want to hurt his cousin. Why anyone would want to kill Bo for. "You know I couldn't let that happen," Luke attempts to lighten the topic as he sees the fear reenter Bo's eyes, "the room would be too big, quiet, and lonely without you. I could never drive The General without you there and that great car you put together would be left to rot at Cooter's junk yard. I couldn't have that happen."

Bo tiredly nods. "Thank-you," Bo tiredly states before falling silent, concentrating upon keeping his heavy eyelids open and upon finding the easiest way to breathe without feeling the piercing pain with each breath.

"Well, Doctor Harshaw claims you're gonna live to walk out of this hospital within a week or so if all goes as planned," Luke states as he pulls a metal fold up chair closer to the bed and takes a seat as he watches the monitors for a moment before glancing back at Bo, "but how do you feel, Bo?"

Bo eyes Luke for a long moment, too stubborn to say how bad he hurts yet too tired to make up a reasonable lie. "I hurt," he slowly states, "everywhere. But I guess," he pauses again, "that is better than what I would have felt if you didn't come when you had." Bo goes silent again as he closes his eyes and he instantly sees Craig and his brother standing over him, of their hateful eyes glaring down at him. Opening them again, he eyes Luke and says, "I'm sorry Luke."

"Sorry?" Luke questions, "What you have to be sorry for? It's me that has to be sorry. I should never have said those horrible things to you the other day. Losing the farm isn't your fault…Hogg had that truck run us off the road in order to get our farm in order to make the farm into a boarding house. You believe that? Our farm a boarding house," Luke shakes his head in disbelief, "but even if it was an accident as we believed it was, I should never accused you or said such things. It wasn't your fault…it would have happened no matter what. I was just angry and needed someone to blame. You just happened to be the one in the best position to blame…you being the driver and all. No," Luke states, looking Bo in the eyes, "it is I that is sorry."

Bo slowly glances away for a moment, taking in the walls that surround him, the walls he will be faced to look at the for the next few days or so. Looking back at Luke, he says, "I'm sorry for," he pauses once more, his breathing is loud and wheezy, "I mean, if I hadn't ran off like I had or if I turned back when y'all called," Bo attempts to shrug and hisses out in pain and Luke jumps to his feet, alert. Relaxing against the bed, Bo states, "y'all wouldn't have had to come find me. Wouldn't have put you in risk with Craig and his brother. I wouldn't be here."

Luke nods. "Yeah well," he lets out a sigh, "if we all didn't accuse you like we had, you wouldn't have felt the need to run off and cure our problem on your own. Though, I must admit, that wasn't one of your better ideas."

Bo gives a short nod, his thoughts are focused upon all that had happened. What he had overheard. Abruptly he sits up, ignoring the sharp piercing pain that streaks his body and Luke places a protective hand upon his shoulder in worry. Looking at Luke, Bo states, "You're gonna have to help, Hogg, Luke."

"Help Hogg?" Luke questions, "From what? His greed or his pride? If he wasn't so damn greedy, if he didn't run you off the road, you wouldn't be here!"

"Neither. From the people he's working with," Bo states, each word urgently spoken, "the only reason they've agreed to do business with him," Bo pauses, fighting to breathe, "is to get to Hogg's money. I overheard them fighting. Hogg's niece and her husband…about Brian that gun man. They said they were using Hogg with the boarding house to rob him blind. Leave him broke with a boarding house."

Luke sits down in silent thought. "I really don't care about Hogg getting robbed. Most that money don't belong to him anyway. But," Luke states thoughtfully, "now that I shoved Brian off the loft to get to you and so far escaped," Luke eyes Bo as he is quick to realize that Bo may not be safe if they decided to go after him, "it'd leave Craig and his wife in a state of panic now that their plans didn't go as expected. Who knows how they'll react." Luke goes silent for a long moment, too busy to sort out his new thoughts and fears that Bo's statement had installed within him. Looking back at Bo, he states, "What happened, Bo?"

Bo eyes Luke tiredly as his mind replays the day's events vividly while he attempts to ignore the throbbing pain that the painkillers have yet to kill off. "Well, I felt like I lost the farm. I felt that way even before you or anyone else said anything. I felt like I had to do something to get it back, I didn't know what. But I had to do something, so," Bo pauses and closes his eyes for a brief moment before forcing them open again, "so when you left the room this morning, I thought it was my opportunity to at least walk to the farm and to have a look. See if I could see or find anything." Bo closes his eyes for a long moment before he forces them open again, to look at Luke and slowly begins to tell him all that had happened, starting from leaving through the window and until Luke had climbed up into the loft.

Luke slowly nods as Bo goes silent and watches Bo fighting off sleep momentarily, lost in silent thought. "Thanks Bo," Luke finally states as he places a comforting hand upon Bo's wrist as he stands up, "you may be right about Hogg being in trouble. But he may not be the only one. Jesse and everyone is in the waiting room right now waiting for their turn to have their visit with you. They have a strange one day rule where you can only have one visitor at a time. Something about it being too stressful for you. For today," Luke grins at Bo in attempt to lighten the mood for his cousin, "I am going to make sure that there is to be someone in here with you at all time. Day or night. Who knows if they'll come back after you or not. I'd rather be safe than sorry," Luke pauses momentarily as he takes a last look at the monitors and down at Bo. "You get feeling better. That's an order, you hear? We'll need your help to move back into the farm once this is all done and over with. Ya hear?"

Bo forces a small grin. "Yes sir, Lukas," Bo states and Luke bends over to give Bo a gentle hug.

"Bye Bo," Luke slowly stands up and takes a step away from him, "you get some rest."

Bo nods and goes to say something only to quickly fall back to sleep, no longer able to fight his heavy eyelids to fight back sleep. Luke nods at his sleeping cousin, once more thankful with the report they had gotten from the doctor despite the apparent pain Bo remains to feel. "Nite cuz," he states before turning around and walking to the closed door.


	7. Chapter 7

_**AUTHOR'S NOTE: **My previous ID here was DOHNUMB3RSFAN01, but have changed my ID to GarrettDuke01 after my created DOH fan-fic character and an ID I am better known by on another DOH fanforum. I apologize for any inconvenience that this may have on this story. But please note that this is the same author that wrote the previous six chapters to "Evicted" just a different ID to go with the story._

_Sorry for the long delay. Life has gotten busy and had little to no time to even think of writing until today. Thanks for your patience and for reading my story and for the reviews!_

_I do NOT own any characters nor the show. I don't get paid for writing, just enjoy writing about my favorite TV show. Any characters that was not in the Dukes (like Rory, Craig, and Brian) are fictional and didn't get their names or anything from anyone, but just what came to mind when I was writing for them. _

* * *

_**CHAPTER SEVEN**_

Looking around the empty old farm house, Craig feels his muscles tightening up as he forces his thoughts to run through his well thought through plan and chills of excitement cross his body. Excitement at the thought that they had entered Hazzard dirt poor and will be leaving Hazzard rich with all of Hogg's money. An evil smile crosses his handsome face at the thought of what Hogg's reactions will be when he finds that he has been robbed and by the time he figures out that he was robbed by them, they'll be long gone from Hazzard. Despite how much he hated Hazzard and the old farm house they had been trapped in the past few days, the rewards were going to be well worth it. If only there was some way to speed up their plan…

But Craig knows that if he were to change his plans or tries to speed them up, would only produce failure. Reminding Craig that he needed to be patient and to follow his plans no matter how he felt.

Sighing heavily he walks out of the living room and into the empty kitchen where Rory is standing over the counter making sandwiches. "Oh good," she smiles up at him, "you can run this up this up to your idiot brother. He's lucky I don't make him starve to death."

Craig shakes his head at her. He loved her, but couldn't understand why she hated his brother for. "I'll make sure to relay the message to him," he grins ornery at her as he takes the plate from her, "Hey, have you looked for that old man's ring yet?"

Rory stops from making her current sandwich to glare at her husband, irritated with his questions. "Does it look like I care about a dumb ring? He shouldn't have left it behind if it was all so important to him!" she states before inhaling heavily, "Look Craig, I still don't think this is going to work. I mean my uncle is over protective of his money. How are we to get past that to get his money? What you going to do with that hick kid you kidnapped? Don't you think it would have been better if you let your brother get rid of him as he wanted to? As it is, we have him on our hands to deal with as well as all the damn interruptions from that hick sheriff!"

Craig sighs as he leans against the front door. "We have our plans, Rory. They will work. You need to stop worrying about them and just follow them. As for that hick," Craig pauses as he glances out the window towards the barn, "Brian will handle him and be rid of his body by tomorrow. I promise, OK? I wanted to think it all through before going ahead with it so that we wouldn't make any mistakes or leave any trails."

Rory nods silently before turning her back to Craig and goes back to her sandwiches. "It better work out or else we'll be facing some heavy time behind bars in the near future," she silently utters as Craig walks out onto the front porch.

Stepping off the porch and onto the dirt driveway, Craig cusses as cold rain washes down on him and he quickens his speed as he walks towards the old barn. Approaching the barn, Craig's heart comes to a halt in fear and shock as he sees Brian lying face down in a mud pile. "Brian!" he yells as he bends down to check a pulse to find a steady pulse. "Brian!" he hears himself yell again as he carefully rolls him over to find his face thick of mud and blood. A moment passes before Brian moans loudly as his eyes slowly open. "Brian! What happened? You OK?"

Brian eyes Craig for a long moment before he stiffly sits up to let out a yell of pain as a sharp pain cuts through him. "I don't know," he gasps, "Damn. I hurt." He goes silent for a long moment as he blankly looks around before he gives a startled look, "He took him. He's gone."

"He took him?" Craig questions before it sinks in of what he is talking about. After a moment of looking at Brian, he stands up to quickly runs through the barn and climbs the ladder up to the loft where he finds the loft a mess and empty of any prisoners. "Damn it!" he cusses angrily as he thinks of the prisoner gone and free and the damage that he could bring upon him and their plans. Panic is quick to set in as he eyes his brother before looking back at the house. Rory's words of worry rush through him and for the first time since they have entered Hazzard, his own worry explodes within him. Now that their prisoner has supposedly escaped from them, he is free to tell anyone and everyone what he had overheard in the woods. Which means they will have to act fast before it's too late. Only to make him nervous. They had plans to follow. To not to follow them could produce trouble for them all. But they couldn't just pack up and leave either. . .

"I'm sorry Craig," Brian breaks the silence as he eyes his brother with pain filled eyes, "I tried fighting him, but then he -"

"He won. You could have yelled out to us. You could have shot him. You could have shot them both," Craig angrily interrupts him as his anger explodes within him, "we trusted you and you failed us! Now what are we to do, Brian? Rory tol' me we shouldn't be trusting you and I guess she was right!" Craig stands up shaking his head as he eyes the open land around them in some hope of finding something, but finding nothing. "Who took him? What he look like? Never mind. Get up and we'll talk about it in the house!"

Brian eyes his angry brother with his own anger. He had been eager to shoot and kill their supposed prisoner. Told them it was dangerous to keep him alive. Craig had insisted upon keeping him alive until he had been ready to kill the prisoner. He tried warning him and yet Craig refused to listen to him and now Craig had the nerve to blame him. To be angry at him for it. Inhaling heavily pain explodes within him as he tries to stand up only for pain to scream across his body. "I can't Craig. I think my leg's broken. Perhaps my arm. Damn I hurt," he finally states, "my head. Everything."

"You damn baby," Craig rolls his eyes before he bends down and grabs Brian's good arm and throws it around his thick neck before beginning to drag him towards the farm house.

* * *

Luke and Cooter pulls to a halt in front of the all too familiar court house as Luke remains silent in thought. Silent in thought of all that his cousin had told him that had happened to him and all that he had overheard after he had awakened after his harsh fall. And all that it could mean for the town's commissioner that remains blinded by his greed and love of money. Turning to Cooter, he asks, "You ready?"

"As ready as I'm ever gonna be. You think Hogg's gonna believe you?" Cooter questions as he pulls himself out through the open window.

"I'm going to have to convince him to believe me," Luke states as he walks around the hood of The General, "now that we got Bo back, I am sure they will be in panic mode and who knows how they'll react."

Cooter nods as they walk into the court house and into a long wide hall way. They pass a couple of people before they reach the open door way of the police station and Cooter follows Luke into the small room.

"Hey Luke, hey Cooter, " Deputy Enos Strait says with a wide smile on his face, "how's the move going?"

Luke eyes the friendly deputy with impatience before forcing himself to nod at him. "Just fine," sarcasm drips from both words heavily yet the deputy seems naïve to it. "We're here to see Hogg."

"Well I'm sorry Luke, but Mr. Hogg is busy at the moment," the deputy states, the smile remains planted on his face, "perhaps I can take a message for him."

"Well Enos, I mean no disrespect to you. You have your job to do, but some things are just meant to be given in person and this is one of them," Luke states and boldly continues to walk towards Hogg's closed door and as Enos goes to follow him, he turns and states, "I know, you said, he's busy. But some things can't wait. This can't wait."

Deputy Strait eyes him nervously and then at the closed door. Torn between what his friend had urgently said and the orders he was given. "I've got strict orders, Luke. You go in there he'll be mad. Not just at you, but at me," he says half pleading Luke to stop and when he doesn't, his frown disappears as he realizes something must be wrong. "What's wrong, Luke?"

"Ask your sheriff. He knows all about it and would back us up," Luke eyes Enos with angry eyes before he inhales heavily, reminding himself of who Enos is. A friend who probably knows nothing of what is going on. "Look Enos. I respect you and your position. I don't want to get you in trouble, but I have urgent matters to bring to Hogg. Matters that can not wait any longer than it already has. Bo is in the hospital after being kidnapped and beaten by a couple of bad people that Hogg is working with. We have reasons to believe that Hogg could be the next in line now that we had helped Bo escape from his kidnappers. It's important, Enos."

Enos' eyes go wide with the new info and panic sets in. "Oh no! That's terrible! Is Bo OK?" he asks.

"Should be, but you could always go see for yourself. I've got family sitting with him twenty-four seven until these guys get caught and put where they belong. Sure he would love any kind of company he could get. Now if you don't mind, we need to talk to Hogg," Luke states as he walks past Enos Strait to the closed door.

"Yeah OK, Luke," Enos states as he steps back away from Luke and Cooter.

Luke nods before he quickly pulls Hogg's door open and steps in, followed by Cooter who quickly close the door behind them.

From behind the expensive oak wooden desk that sits halfway in the room, the round man dressed in the white three piece suit gasps as he sits up from lying with his head down on the desk, taking a nap. He eyes Luke and Cooter with tired and feared eyes for a long moment before realization sinks in and he yells, "Luke Duke and Cooter Davenport! What has gotten into you? Don't you knock like normal people before entering like that? I told my deputy that -"

"That you were to have no visitors. Guess visitors would interrupt your little cat nap, huh, Hogg?" Luke angrily spits out, "Well I really don't care if you get a cat nap or not due to the fact that your niece and her husband not only kidnapped Bo but beat him! He lies in the hospital because of the people you hired to take over our farm! Which makes you just as responsible for it as them!"

Hogg eyes him wildly for a long moment. "Now wait a minute there Luke Duke! You have some nerve to run in here like that running your mouth about some wild accusations! I may have taken your farm due to your tardiness to pay your mortgage, but no one had kidnapped Bo. Not alone someone I know. What does my niece have to do with this anyway?" he questions.

"Everything. Just ask Rosco. He'll vouch for us," Luke throws at him.

Boss laughs. "He will? Since when? Even if he did, it wouldn't mean nothing since he knows nothing!" he yells, "Now if you don't mind, you can turn around and leave where you two came from. Otherwise I'll have my deputy arrest you both."

"Yeah sure Boss, we'll leave," Luke states sarcastically, but unlike Enos, Boss is quick to pick up on his sarcasm, "and allow your own people to come back at you. After all, why should we care what happens to you? I mean it was you who had us ran off the road on our way to pay our mortgage. It was you that had plans to turn our farm into a boarding house. It is your people that kidnapped Bo after he overheard their evil plans. Their evil plans against you, Hogg. He's hurt. He's in the hospital because of you. And you know what he had begged me to do when he finally woke up?" Luke awaits for an answer that doesn't come. "Was to come and help you. To help you from your own people. I guess that's what separates us from you," Luke pauses, feeling his adrenaline being fueled by his anger, "you are worried about you, your money, and yourself.. While Bo was able to look past what you did to him to worry about you."

Hogg eyes the two for a long moment as he lights his cigar, his mind sharply turns within him to force him to realize that Luke wouldn't lie about his cousin being hurt. He himself was dirty like that, but not the Dukes. "What are you talking about, Luke?" he finally asks,

"Your niece and her husband and his brother is at our farm. They are the ones you have working for your new boarding house. Well Bo went for a walk this morning. Real early. He felt responsible for losing the farm since he was driving when you ran him off the road. He fell down that hill and passed out. When he woke up, he overheard your niece and her husband arguing over his brother being there. About their plans. The only reason they're in Hazzard, working with you, is to rip you off and then plan on running to leave you without a penny to your name and with an empty boarding house. They're using you, Hogg," Luke states and pauses for a moment, "anyway, they somehow found Bo and forced him to go with them. Had him tied up in our barn in the loft. That's where we found him barely alive and that is where we helped him escape. I'm sure by now Craig has found out that he's gone. He's going to be mad. And logic tells me, he'll panic and when people in his position panic, people will get hurt and since his plans involve robbing you, logic also tells me, that you'll be the next person to be hurt by him and his ugly brother."

Boss eyes Luke and Cooter for a long moment, looking for a sign of some sort of joke or trick they could be playing. "My niece wouldn't come all this way to rob me like that. I'm her uncle. She loves me. I have helped her in so many ways -"

"Face it Hogg," Cooter speaks up for the first time since entering his office, "she's related to you. Perhaps greed and love of money runs in the family. Perhaps she's learned from the best of 'em. You."

Hogg eyes Cooter and then Luke. "Yeah. OK. Fine," he stutters, "perhaps you're right. I don't know. All I wanted -"

"I don't care what you want. What I care about is my cousin who is in the hospital because of the people you brought into our house. He was beaten and was going to be killed if we hadn't shown up when we had. All because of your greedy plan. And now we're here to save your sorry butt," Luke states, disgust thick in his words, "If I had a choice, I'd still be at the hospital with Bo to make sure he's Ok. That they won't come back to finish their job I had interrupted, but he was insistent that I help you. And here I am. To help the man behind it all."

"Look Luke, I knew nothing about Bo. That wasn't in our plans at all. I had nothing to do with what happened to Bo. I really hope that he'll be OK. He'll be OK, won't he?" Boss rambles.

"None thanks to you. You may not have had planned to hurt Bo, but he was hurt all the same," Luke states and takes a step back to the door, "and since I am here to help you out, I think it is best if you come with us. Perhaps -"

"What about my money? You said they were here to rob me of my money. Not to hurt me -"

"I don't care about your money. Once they get your money, their focus will be on you. Now let's go," Luke roughly states and Cooter walks behind Boss to help him towards the door. Luke waits for them to join him before opening the door just in time for a thick and bold hand gun to be jammed into his chest with Craig holding it boldly there. Rory stands behind him with a gun of her own while Enos sits on the floor, tightly tied up.

"Rory! Craig!" Boss cries, "They just tol' me what you did to Bo…what you plan to do to me! I can't -"

"Shut up fat man," Craig snaps as he shoves the gun into Luke's chest to force him to step back, "y'all get into the room and no one else will have to get hurt."

Luke gulps nervously before nodding in defeat and they step back into the room before Craig and Rory join them, slamming and locking the door behind them. "Look Craig. Look Rory," Boss says pleadingly, "we were in this as a team. Teams don't turn on each other."

"We were no team. You only thought we were," Craig snaps as he eyes Luke and he sharply backhands him across the face with the butt of the gun and Luke gasps in pain and surprise as he falls back into the wall before standing back up. "You're the one that hurt Brian! You lowlife garbage!"

"Not nice to talk to yourself that way," Luke states with a smile before dodging another blow and grabs Craig's gun hand before he can withdraw it to tightly and sharply pull it behind his back and grabs the gun out of his hand with one hand while with his other hand he shoves Craig tightly into the wall and places the gun to his head, "He got what he deserved. He got less than he deserved. You hurt my cousin. You hurt him real bad and I know well enough your evil plans you had for him if I hadn't shown up when I had. Perhaps I'll do to you what you had planned for him. The difference is, is I won't fail as y'all had." With that, Luke shoves the gun tighter to his head and he gasps sharply. "Rory, give your uncle your gun and any other weapon you have. You refuse or try anything, your ugly husband will become uglier."

Rory eyes her uncle and then her husband, her gun tightly in her hands and for a moment she aims it at the back of Luke. "I wouldn't think of it ma'am," Cooter calmly states, "Luke was a sergeant in the Marines. He's been to war. He's a legend when it comes to shooting guns. You want to gamble your husband's life?"

She slowly shakes her head before she hands Hogg her gun as she gives him an ashamed look. "I told you this would never work, Craig. I told you and you didn't listen! Damn you!" she cusses as Cooter boldly steps around her and unlocks the door to walk back out into the sheriff's office. A moment later he returns with a set of handcuffs that he hands to Luke who nods while handing him the gun.

"Too bad for you," Luke whispers as he tightly tightens the cuffs around each thick wrist of Craig's after pulling his arms behind his back, "you're life will be spared to spend years behind bars. Hope you have a good stay."

Enos slowly walks in with apologetic looks at Hogg, Luke, and Cooter. "They snuck up on me," he says in a way of explanation, "Rosco is on his way out to the Duke farm to arrest Brian and will be here afterwards." He nods at them as he moves to Rory with another set of handcuffs. "I hate to do this to you ma'am, but you broke the law. Woman or male, you are under arrest." With that he puts her in handcuffs as he slowly reads off of a car their rights.

"My brother's hurt," Craig hisses angrily before trying to head butt Luke who quickly throws him to the ground. He looks up accusingly at Luke, "because of that piece of garbage."

"Well he'll get treated here at the jail," Enos states as he helps him up by the handcuffs as Cooter takes Rory and he helps guide her out of Hogg's office and down the stairs to the two jail cells where he puts her in the first one and slams the door shut. Enos locks Craig in the empty cell next to her's. "We'll have to put Brian upstairs I guess."

Boss stands still in shock as he eyes his niece in disbelief. "I can't believe you would do this to me. I trusted you. We were in this together," he finally states, "may you enjoy your time at the pen."

"You jerk. How can you stand there and allow me to be arrested? You were in on it as well -"

"Wait a minute! I may have helped you with the plan to get the Duke farm and to build the boarding house, but I had nothing to do with you two kidnapping Bo Duke and trying to kill him! That was all you three…and now try to rob me!" he yells at her, "I may share no love for the Dukes, but I don't want to see anyone hurt. Not even them. Don't try putting me at your low level!"

Hogg eyes her for a long moment before he sharply turns and walks up the narrow stairs to be followed by Cooter, Luke, and then Enos. As everyone comes to a halt in the police station, he turns to eye Luke and Cooter. "I owe you a big one. Thank you Luke. Thank you Cooter. If you hadn't shown up when you had," he gulps nervously, "they'd have robbed me or worse."

"Don't thank us. Thank Bo," Luke quickly states, "and you're right. You owe us. You owe us our farm back."

Hogg quickly looks away. He has always tried to get their farm, to get their land and he finally had it, but he knew that Luke was right. "Yeah I guess I do owe you your farm," he nervously states looking back at them.

"Nah Boss," Cooter speaks up to gather surprised looks from everyone, "you owe the farm to Bo. After all, it was him who found all this out. The hard way."

"Cooter's right. Bo earned the farm back," Luke pats Cooter on the back, glad to see all this coming to an end, "and perhaps a reward for halting your robbery. After all, if he never had said anything, we'd be at the hospital right now while you'd be robbed by your own people. And after what you did to us, who'd have blamed Bo for not saying anything?"

Boss exhales heavily, upset at being in this position. "OK, OK, OK," he grudgingly throws his arms up in surrender, "You're right. I owe Bo a visit to show him my appreciation and support. I'll give him back the farm and a five hundred dollar reward once Rosco shows up with Brian and get him arrested and situated in jail. How's that?"

"Great, Boss. Just great," Luke smiles and pats Cooter on the back, "Let's go tell Bo, Jesse, and Daisy the great news."

* * *

Exhaustion heavily rushes through Jesse Duke's aching body as he sits quietly in an old beat up metal fold up chair, silently listening to the rhythmic beeping of the machines. The machines that gives his young nephew life giving support, machines that display how weak his nephew is after the big ordeal he had gone through. Only to send his thoughts falling back through the past couple of days events that has led them to the hospital. Of the big truck driving them off the road, to the harsh words and emotions directed at Bo, and finding Bo missing early yesterday morning that had led to the search for his nephew and brought them back home. Back home where they had found Bo violently beaten and tied in their own barn. The barn they all had been in and out of their own home. Their home, their farm that had equaled a welcoming and safe environment for all of them and now will be a constant reminder of the violent nightmare that Bo had went through in his bold attempt to get the farm back.

Only to stir violent anger within his aging body. Anger at Boss for his greedy attempt to gain their farm to gain an extra dollar for himself. Angry at the people who Hogg had hired to reform his farm into a boarding house. Angry at the people who had kidnapped Bo in their attempt to protect their evil and greedy plans to rip Hogg off and had ruthlessly beaten Bo with thoughts of killing him.

Worse yet, he was angry at himself. Angry that he had allowed his emotions to get the better of him as he had faced losing the only place he has ever lived at. Through his kids' entire life he had preached that all they needed was their family. That family and love for one another was and is more important over any material possessions they could ever have. Including their farm. And yet, when Hogg had took their farm away from him, he had allowed his raw emotions to grab a hold of him and had shoved those teachings he had taught the kids over and over again away and had blamed the only person he could blame. Bo.

If only he had been more understanding, if only he had intruded and stopped Luke's harsh accusations towards Bo, perhaps Bo wouldn't have had went out in attempt to solve their problem on his own. If only he had done something. . .

"Uncle Jesse," Bo's weak voice interrupts the human silence within the room as the room had been plagued with the beeping of the machines, the hissing of the air machine behind his bed. Jesse slowly glances down at the bed and forces a smile to see Bo awake after been asleep ever since Luke had ran out of his room a couple of hours ago. Awake and looking up at Jesse with eyes full of pain, fear, and hope; eyes seeming to plea Jesse to help him feel better. Only to drive Jesse's guilt deeper within him as he is overcome with the feeling helplessness at seeing the pain and fear so prominent in his eyes.

"Hey Bo," Jesse forces a smile and attempts to hide his own emotions as he reaches down and gently pats Bo's shoulder before he lovingly wipes a thick lock of Bo's golden hair out from his bruised eye. "I'm right here, Bo. I'm right here." He goes silent once more as his exhaustion seems to grow thicker and heavier within him. "How you feelin' Bo?"

Bo eyes him with tired eyes for a long moment before looking away to remind Jesse of when Bo was younger and would avoid eye contact when he had done something he knew he shouldn't have done. Finally Bo shrugs, looking up at the ceiling. "They say I'll be fine," he says almost in a whisper, "but I hurt. Everywhere."

Jesse nods as he firmly grabs Bo's good hand. "Bo look at me,"' Jesse calmly states with a hint of sternness that he had forced into his voice, knowing that would force Bo to listen to him. Jesse wait's a moment as Bo slowly looks up at him with tears building up in his baby blue eyes only to force Jesse's heart to tighten within him. "I'm sorry, Bo. I know I didn't directly accuse you of losing the farm, but I didn't tell you otherwise either. I didn't stop Luke from accusing you. I knew it wasn't your fault. It was that damn truck's fault. Yet deep down, I had accused you and am sure I gave you clear signs of how I had felt. Whether I meant to or not. It wasn't your fault, I -" he cuts himself off to clear his mind momentarily, "I just had to find someone to blame and you were in the position to blame since you were driving and all. I'm sorry, Bo."

Bo nods slightly as he looks away once again, refusing to look at Jesse in his own guilt for his own actions. After all, if he hadn't ran off as he had, he wouldn't have caused his family the trouble of worrying about him, of looking for him, and fearing the worst. If only he had returned when they called him instead of continuing forward…

But despite his family's apology, Bo had quietly blamed himself for losing the farm. He was known for his great driving ability. For his ability to avert danger and had allowed the truck to drive him off the road. There had to have been something he could have done to prevent it from happening, yet he had been run off the road to lose their farm. From the second The General left the road and it was clear they were going to lose the farm, he knew he had to do something to get it back. To right his wrong. He had to prove himself worthy enough to be called a Duke, to be in the family.

Luke had the brains of the family, he was smart and quick witted. He got them all out of the trouble that Bo himself seemed to bring them all in. Daisy was country smart and was able to keep the house and family running by her home made meals, the clean house, and her ability to look past being a woman and able to get down and dirty if need be. Jesse was the Duke patriarch who was wise beyond words, who was loving, caring, and forgiving. Always willing to listen and to help them out no matter what they had done. He knew exactly what to do in any given situation or to help anyone out in need of help. And Bo? All he seemed worthy to do was to bring his beloved family into trouble and then look to Luke for help out.

So when Boss had taken the farm, Bo knew he no longer could turn and look at Luke and expect him to help him out. He had to do something to make him worthy to his family and not just someone who was clumsy and couldn't do anything right. So he had set off early on his own in his vague attempt to try to get the farm back on his own with little to no thought of how he was going to do that. After all, he has never been accused of being smart and quick witted as Luke or wise as Jesse, but was thought of to be a bit slow and quick to react.

And now he lies on the old hospital bed, listening to the machines beeping and hissing to help support him in attempt to regain his strength enough to walk out of the hospital. Stuck in the old hospital bed with his entire body throbbing and screaming loudly in pain at him and yet knows how lucky he is. If Luke hadn't shown up when he had, Bo knew sooner or later, Brian would have pulled that trigger as he so badly wanted to. His body wouldn't be throbbing or screaming at him in pain. He wouldn't be feeling or thinking anything, because without Luke, Bo would be dead. Without Luke, they all would be mourning his death and worrying about funeral arrangements and where Bo would be buried.

The thought sends chills rushing violently across his throbbing body and more tears threaten to melt down his cheeks. By trying to help, he had made it worse for anyone and now he is faced with having to face his family and their supposed guilt. Only to send questions of why through him. Why they felt bad and guilty? He had lost the farm. He had allowed himself a moment to get distracted with the conversation that had allowed the truck to run them off the farm.

"Sorry? Y'all need to stop apologizing for something y'all had the right to be mad at me for," Bo finally states, "Luke was right. If I hadn't been talking and paying attention to what I was doing, we wouldn't have been ran off the road. I don't care if that was Hogg's plan or not. There could have been something I could have done. But I didn't and we lost the farm. It is I that is sorry. Not you or Luke or anyone else!"

Jesse inhales heavily and gently squeezes Bo's good hand and shakes his head no at him. "Luke wasn't right and neither are you. Hogg stole our farm away by hiring that driver to drive us off the road. End of story. Blaming each other or ourselves won't make it any different or make it any better," Jesse caringly states, once again noticing how Bo is avoiding looking at him, "but that's not the only thing on your mind right now, now is it?"

Bo exhales heavily to force his lungs to explode in pain and he is thrown into a harsh coughing fit. A moment later the fit ends, but his lungs remain engulfed in pain. "I'm sorry Jesse. For everything. I just wanted to do something to get the farm back. Perhaps get some information to help us out," Bo pauses as tears melt down his cheeks, "I didn't know what I was going to do, but knew I had to do something. I didn't mean for all of this to happen."

"I know you didn't, Bo. I just feel bad that you felt you had to do something like this on your own," Jesse goes silent and waits for a long moment before Bo slowly looks back at him, "I'm glad Luke found you when he had, I can't stand the thought of what might have happened. . ." he let's his voice trail off as his own thoughts wonder off into what would have happened if Luke didn't find Bo when he had, of the funeral they'd all be preparing right now. Forcing a smile once more he states, "I'm proud of you Bo. For who you are. I love you."

Bo nods slowly before muttering, "Love you too."

Jesse smiles at him. "What you did was really brave. Might not have been the smartest thing to do, but it was brave and thanks to you, we may get our farm back," Jesse states with a smile, "and if we do, we have you to thank. But you know what?"

Bo eyes him tiredly for a moment and shrugs. "What?" he questions as he eyes the clock and worry sets in for Luke, noting how long he has been gone for.

"I like it much better when you and Luke work as a team," Jesse states with a smile and runs his hand through Bo's thick hair as he had often done when Bo was a child, "I'm just glad to hear you'll be OK. Your doctor says you'll be out of here soon."

"Won't be soon enough," Bo is quick to add.

"You'll be outta this joint and back into our old bedroom," both Jesse and Bo jumps slighting in surprise at the voice that comes behind Jesse and they both look back to find Luke standing in the door way with a bold smile on his face. A moment later he walks farther into the room, followed by Daisy, Cooter, Rosco, and Boss Hogg. "Boss here has something to give you, Bo."

"Daisy," Bo smiles at his cousin as she walks around the bed to tightly hug onto him and he hisses out in pain before she lets go and kisses him on the forehead.

"Sorry sugar, just so glad to see you alive is all," she smiles down at him as she wipes another lock of hair out of his eyes, "you will never know just how worried we were for you. How much you scared us. Never…I say NEVER do that again. You hear?"

Bo nods. "Yes ma'am," he finally answers fighting back a yawn, "Sorry."

"No," Boss steps up to the bed besides Jesse, "it is me that is sorry. I am sorry that I allowed a little greed to over come me. I don't know what got over me." Everyone rolls their eyes at his lie. "Rory called me with this idea of starting a boarding house and well I instantly thought of your farm. The house works -"

"Hogg you've always wanted to get your greedy fat hands on their farm. Don't stand there and lie so blatantly to them about it! As for what got over you, I'll be glad to inform you what got over you," Cooter states, "GREED! As it always does."

Hogg eyes him angrily for a long moment before turning back to Bo. "OK fine. So maybe Cooter's right," he sighs heavily as he reaches into the white three piece suit's coat, "but I am here to apologize and to make it as right as I can. I wanted your farm to make some extra money, but I didn't want anyone to get hurt. That wasn't part of the plan and for that, Bo, I am sorry. I am so glad to hear that you will be OK. You've got to believe me. Despite what y'all have done to me in the past and how problematic you are for me and Rosco here, I would never want anything like this to happen to you or to anyone. I'm sorry, Bo. Jesse."

Bo nods. "Thanks for the apology, but it's not needed, Boss," Bo weakly states, fighting off sleep, "we know you may have been the one to steal the farm away from us by having us ran off the road, but all this," he motions around him, "is of Rory's and her family's making. Not your's."

"Thank-you Bo. That is very big of you," Hogg states with a smile as he pulls out a long white envelope out from an inner pocket, "and since you were so bold and brave to rescue me from -"

"I'm in the hospital, Boss. How I help rescue you?" Bo interrupts him. "That all is Luke."

"I wouldn't have known about it, if you hadn't tol' me, Bo," Luke calmly states with a smile, "ol' Boss would be as poor as any of us if you hadn't informed and persuaded me to go help him. If not worse off."

"What Luke says," Boss says, "and it was you that had helped put an end to Rory, Craig, and Brian and their ruthlessness. So I am to reward you for your effort and for all that you went through in order to do it. It won't undo what had happened, but at least you know your effort was recognized and since I had wrongly foreclosed your farm you are not only rewarded five hundred dollars, but am also giving you back your farm and everything on the land back to you and your family."

Boss hands the envelope reluctantly to Bo who slowly accepts it and glances into the envelope to find a check wrote out for five hundred dollars to his name and the house keys Hogg and taken from them to the farm. "Thanks to Bo, we can move back into the farm as of now," Luke states with a broad smile on his face.

"I'll be glad to help out," Cooter inserts as he readjusts his grease stained hat, "we'll have y'all moved back into the farm before they release you outta this dump."

With that said, everyone turns to face Bo to see his reaction to find him asleep, the keys clenched tightly in his hands. "Guess your excitement wore him out, Cooter," Luke states as he leans over and carefully grabs a key from Bo's hand who mutters something, but remains asleep, "and since he's asleep, seems the perfect time to get started moving back home."

"That's a ten four," Cooter states and they all smile at Jesse before Cooter and Daisy both follow Luke out into the hallway.

"I'm sorry for all of this, Jesse," Boss somberly states, eyeing his old friend before looking down at Bo, "I didn't mean for this to happen."

Jesse nods firmly. "I know you didn't, but maybe next time you should think of this when you decide to team up with someone for any reason." Jesse pauses, "Thanks for coming down here and for all of this. Know it means a lot to Bo."

"Luke's right. He deserves it," Boss states as he steps back towards the open door, "You know where to find us if you need anything. We need to get going back to town."

"Bye Jesse," Rosco states before he turns to follow Boss back out into the brightly lit hallway, leaving Jesse alone with a sleeping Bo.

* * *

_**FIVE DAYS LATER**_

Daisy Duke looks wishfully across the large farm kitchen, taking in the freshly cooked food that is spread across the counters and the preset table and the welcome home banners that hang from the doorway. Her cousin, not only was he being released from the hospital, but was also returning home for the first time since they had been forced to move out by Hogg and the sheriff. And she wanted his homecoming to perfect and special. After all, if it wasn't for Bo and his bold and brave actions he had taken in his naïve attempt to get the farm back, they would still be at their old rented farm house and being forced to watch their beloved farm being turned into a boarding house. In her eyes, he was a hero and he deserved the best homecoming that he could get.

"Lookin' good, Daisy," Cooter grins as he walks into the kitchen while looking at the clock, "when they getting home?"

She smiles as she recounts the plates. "Anytime, Cooter," she finally answers as she hears a car pull up and she walks over to the screen door, followed by Cooter, to look out to see the sheriff's car pull up. A smile crosses her face as she watches Rosco open the drivers door and climbs out to walk around to open the door for Boss who slowly gets out, cautiously looking around.

"You invited them?" Cooter questions with distaste, "After what they did to you and you went and invited the enemy?"

Daisy nods. "Jesse's idea. They may have started all of this, but Rory was Boss' niece so he's also lost something as well. His trust of a family member. He was being used by them, Cooter. He needs some sympathy as well for all his troubles. No matter what he done to us," she explains.

"If you say so," Cooter shrugs as he opens the door for Boss who nods at him as he walks past him, followed by Rosco. "Welcome to the DUKE farm, gentlemen."

Boss and Rosco nod as Boss finds his way to the food. "Ooooh looks so good, where do I start?" he laughs and Daisy pats him on the back.

"Sorry to inform you, Boss, but no one touches a bite of food until Bo gets here. He'll be the first one to load his plate," Daisy winks at him as she moves over to the soup she had made and stirs it slightly before checking on a few other dishes she had made.

"Ah man, Daisy, you're killing me here!" Boss complains as he stairs at all the freshly made food that is lined up in front of him, "I'm starving! Can't I have one little bite?"

"Not a chance Boss. This here welcoming home party is for Bo. Not you," Cooter states from the front door, staring out into the rainy afternoon, waiting with excitement to see Jesse's old white truck to arrive, "and I highly doubt you'll die of starvation anytime soon, Boss."

Boss grumbles something to Rosco before he steps back to sit down at one of the kitchen chairs at t he table and Rosco silently follows him. "Well when he's getting back?" Boss questions.

"Anytime, Boss," Daisy says with a smile before silence slowly falls over the farm kitchen for a long moment, the aroma from all the food fills the air, and the high emotions that everyone rides upon now that the nightmare has seemed to come to an end. "In the mean time, can I get you something to drink? We got iced tea, lemonade, and water."

Both Rosco and Boss simultaneously ask for tea and Daisy grins and grabs two glasses from the cupboard before retrieving jug of tea from the refrigerator. "They're here," Cooter chimes in as Daisy pours the tea, his voice filled with excitement and he throws open t he door and steps out onto the front porch. Daisy hands Boss and Rosco their tea before she joins Cooter on the front porch to watch Jesse's dirty truck pulling to a halt besides The General. Three shadows fill the cab of the truck; shadows of Jesse in the driver's seat, Luke in the middle, and Bo sitting in the passenger seat.

Cooter is the first one off the steps of the porch and he throws open the passenger door just as Jesse opens his door and slowly steps out of the truck, eying the cars in the lot before smiling at Daisy. Eyeing Cooter, he says, "His crutches are in the back."

Cooter nods as he goes to the back of the truck to pull out a couple of metal crutches as Luke makes his way out through the open driver's door. Luke smiles at Daisy as he walks past her and Jesse stops to give her a tight celebration hug. "Here Bo," Luke states as he makes his way to the open door, "let Cooter and I help you out and up the stairs. At least until you get use to them crutches."

Bo eyes them hesitantly, his body still aching and exhaustion, yet his pride screams at him from within not to accept their help or their sympathy. He can do it. Sighing heavily, he nods at Luke and allows Luke to take him under the arm and helps push himself out and Cooter catches him under his under arm while Jesse grabs the crutches from Cooter. "There we go," Cooter says as they move forward and as they reach Daisy at the stairs she leans in and gives Bo a kiss on the cheek.

"So glad to see you finally home, Bo," she smiles as she moves out of the way and they begin to help Bo up the steps, "Boss and Rosco are waiting for you in the kitchen. Boss states he is starving to death and was wanting to sample your home welcoming mean. But I made them wait. We tol' them you get the first bite."

Bo offers a smile as he takes in the welcoming banner that hangs over the door and the heavy aroma of Daisy's best home cooked mean hits them as Jesse opens the door for them. "Welcome home, Bo," Jesse states as Luke and Cooter help him past him and into the kitchen where Boss and Rosco both rise to their feet and offer Bo wide smiles of their own.

"Looks like you're going to survive, after all," Rosco says with an ornery grin, "which is good. Y'all keep me in business. Khee!"

"Glad we serve some business," Bo states sarcastically as Daisy pushes back a chair and Luke helps him to sit down and Bo slowly and happily takes everything in that surrounds him. Exhaustion runs thick within him but his sheer happiness and excitement of being home and the bad guys locked away and no longer able to hurt anyone keeps him up and throws his adrenaline into overdrive.

"Well it looks like you didn't eat too well at the hospital," Luke comments as he eyes the food on the counter, "am sure all this food Daisy has prepared for you will make up for all them loss meals you skipped. " With that he begins to grab a paper plate and a bowl and to make sure he gets a little bit of everything before he carries them over to Bo and sets them in front of him. "There ya go…gotta beat the food at the hospital any day."

"Thanks Luke," Bo says with a grin, as he picks up the fork clumsily with his left hand since his right arm sits rested in a sling to help ease the pressure from his injured right shoulder, "I could get use to this."

Luke rolls his eyes as he stands up and Daisy hands Bo a glass of lemonade. "Well…don't," Luke states to send a wave of laughter around the room.

"Well Commissioner, you said you were hungry," Daisy pats Boss on the shoulder, "how about you start the line through the food and we can make room at the table."

Boss jumps up from his chair he had sat back down on a few minutes ago with a large smile on his face. "'Bout time," he states as he makes his way to the counter and grabs a plate and begins piling everything on top of it.

"Glad to see some things never change," Jesse states as he makes his way over to Bo and sets a comforting hand upon Bo's uninjured shoulder, "even more glad to be back home again. But most of all, am glad for us to be a family again."

"Couldn't have said any better myself," Daisy says while Luke and Cooter nod in agreement as they all get in line to get their food, "and we all have Bo to thank for it. Thanks Bo."

Bo shakes his head in disagreement, silently still blaming himself and still wanting to take little to no credit for getting the farm back. After all, it had been Luke who had taken action. It was Luke who saved his life. In his eyes, as it is with anything else, Luke was the one who came to the rescue of him, of the farm, of everyone. In Bo's eyes, Luke will always be his hero.

But he was too exhausted to argue otherwise and was enjoying the food too much to verbally argue with Daisy's statement.

"Yeah. Thank you Bo for saving the farm for us," Luke states as he brings his plate and bowl to the table to sit next to him, "just next time, please let me in on it so we can work as a team. As we have in the past. I like it better that way."

"Ten four," Bo nods as he sets down his fork, "I like it better that way, too."

It goes silent as Daisy and Jesse are the last ones through the line to get their food where they take it the chairs set next to an empty counter since there is no room at the table for them. Silence overcomes the kitchen as everyone silently eats Daisy's meal she had cooked and everyone silently thankful to be together and back in their own kitchen. Everyone thankful to be together as a family again.

_**THE END**_

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_**Thank you to all who have read "Evicted" and for all those who have reviewed. It is always nice to see what I am doing right or wrong and could always use a little motivation from time to time as well. Hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I have enjoyed writing it. :)**_


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